


The Subordinate

by Hurlstien



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Humor, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-15 00:03:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 48,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hurlstien/pseuds/Hurlstien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanted for her knowledge on a certain Sannin, a destitute young street thief is paired up with the most bloodthirsty Akatsuki duo, and must re-learn how to survive with those tempered to kill. [Swearing, violence and a dash of romance]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**-PROLOGUE-**

* * *

Hezā dove into her superior's room and slammed the door. A second later it vibrated as kunai hit the exterior. Inside, she found Hidan's head lying on the floor, his body not two feet away.

He glared up at her as she hurried over to him. "Where's Kakuzu? He needs to sew my–"

"He's busy," she said, grabbing him and ducking into the bathroom. "Why're you a head anyway?"

"Those bastards caught me by surpri–"

But Hezā's hand slapped across his mouth when she heard her attackers outside. She was crouched, ready behind the bathroom door which was at a perpendicular angle to the door leading to the bedroom. She waited, barely breathing, and had to clench back a yelp when Hidan bit the hand loosely covering his mouth. She scowled at him in the gloom, pulling her palm from his teeth.

"Fuck you," he whispered.

The bedroom door opened and their pursuers entered. Hezā tracked the first in line with her chakra and ears, until he was right outside the bathroom, then swung the door open with all her might. Taken by surprise the man was rammed into the wall, too dazed and winded to do anything as Hezā sunk a kunai into his throat. She chanced a glance at the other three and threw the bloodied knife at them before vaulting for the window. It sliced the neck of the next in line and he fell to his knees as the remaining two took after her.

She yanked open the window and crawled up to the roof of the train carriage. Mountains towered to her left and a snow field as large as the ocean stretched to her right. The train thundered along the frozen tracks and rattled through the soles of her feet. The snow stung her eyes and the storming wind had her cloak billowing about her legs. She gritted her teeth, readjusted Hidan's head in the crook of her arm and ran down the cars. She could hear the two Shinobi climbing onto the roof behind her and looked over her shoulder before coming to a stop, facing them. She placed Hidan's head between her feet and readied her left arm for the coup de graĉe.

"Damn it, woman, this is fucking cold!"

Hezā ignored his complaints as she turned a dial on the inside of her metal forearm. She felt the chakra store and build up and extended the limb, steadying it with her right hand and lining up the Shinobi as they rushed toward her. Individual sky blue lights lit up the weapon and the palm opened up to reveal a large circular hole from which a bright glow shone. A second later, a ball of chakra erupted from her hand and shot down the first pursuer, but missed the second as he managed to flip out of the way. He landed awkwardly and heavily, half hanging off the train and Hezā fiddled with her arm again, preparing for another shot. But her assailant, it seemed, was far more agile than she gave him credit for. He hauled himself back onto the roof, rolled to a stand and raced towards her. He was faster than before, and she noticed only too late as he tackled her, his broad shoulder digging into her stomach.

Hezā was winded and felt her foot hit something as she fell. She reached down in time to grab Hidan's hair, saving him from falling into the snow below as her lower body was pressed between the roof and her assailant. Her upper body jutted out from the edge while the man above clawed and scratched at her, reaching for her neck. The metal arm was the one holding her superior's head and its forearm was braced against the side of the train while her other hand attempted to keep her opponent from strangling the life from her bones.

The Shinobi's cloth mask contorted and stretched at the mouth as the man breathed heavily and grunted in his efforts, while Hezā's arm buckled twice from his weight. She used her legs to knee and kick at him, making him flinch back, but it was only enough to reestablish her palm on his sternum.

Her eyes, squinting from the wind and snow, focused on the man's arms that scrambled for her neck. But when she looked up and caught his wild eyes she froze.

_'Hiro?'_

The shape of his eyes was distinctive, and of course, the Coloboma in his right eye. There was no mistaking. It was Hiro Nakamura.

"I spare your life and this is how you repay me?" Hezā yelled above the roar of the train and howling of the wind.

Hiro pulled down the mask covering his nose and mouth. "You killed my brother!"

"… What?" she whispered.

_'But, Kakuzu did that.'_

…

Meanwhile, a blood gargled gasp died in the crushed throat of the man in Kakuzu's grasp. The miser's hazy red vision slowly cleared and he returned from the blood lust to look upon a narrow, body filled hallway.

This was not good. Blood stained the carpets so even if he did dispose of the bodies there would be uproar and alarm throughout the passengers. Kakuzu stood there, frowning for a brief moment, before there was a great 'THWACK!' and he looked to see Hidan's face pushed up against the window outside.

If he weren't such a hard-ass, he might've laughed.

"Kakuzu!" Hidan yelled through the glass pane, "Get the fuck up here!"

The Falls Nin rolled his eyes and pulled back an iron fist. Hidan's face dropped. He tried to shake his head, "No… No! Fuck no! Hezā pull me up! Pull me up you–"

The singing of shattered glass cut through Hidan's ears as the window smashed, sending countless shards cutting through his alabaster cheeks. His mouth exploded with curses and he hurled insults, calling his partner all the derogatory names under the sun. The miser took no notice and leaned out to assess the situation. But he stopped suddenly.

There weren't many things that could make a man like Kakuzu freeze in utter shock. But hanging out the window of a train speeding toward the mouth of a narrow tunnel was one of them.

With less than a second to spare, he turned his body back into the safety of the carriage, feeling all five of his hearts beat a little faster. He stood staring at the roaring black wall, his cloak flapping about him. Hidan's head was gone; there was nothing but dark wind rushing past the broken pane.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello and thank you so much for reading this far! Reviews and con-crit are welcome and very much appreciated.

If a certain chapter contains graphic violence or other such naughty stuff then I will warn you at the beginning.

Please note that this prologue is an excerpt from much later in the story, and as such, relationships and the like have been built up over time.

There are more chapters and this story is updated first [here](http://www.fanfiction.net/~hurlstien).


	2. Chapter 2

_The Informant_

**1**

Gorou laughed and tightened his arm around the woman's shoulders. The joke hadn't exactly been a funny one, but it had tickled him nonetheless. He wasn't drunk, but getting past the point of alertness, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to going home to his nagging wife and her co-dependent mother. It was why he'd ended up in the bar; a crappy day at work, coupled with a crappy journey home, only to be shovelled more crap… well, let's just say life hadn't turned out quite the way he'd wanted it to.

And it didn't help matters by serving an infamous ninja undercover. But that was classified.

The woman by his side watched him with lustful eyes, her plump, rouge lips slipping into a smile. Loose chocolate curls fell about her slender shoulders and decent sized breasts which bounced pleasingly when she laughed. He'd met her only half an hour ago. She'd slunk up to him in that skimpy red dress and asked him if he would buy her a drink – how could he refuse?

He could have her, just for one night. He could tell the wife he had to work late and decided to stay over at Rai's, because let's face it: the journey home was a bitch. It took him over an hour to walk it if he missed the horse coach, which he definitely would have by now, it was half eight at night and the sun had long descended, leaving the land in a peaceful shadow.

Gorou took a long swig of his drink, his gaze drifting about the room, taking in faces but not truly seeing them. Then his eyes caught with the most stunning pair of ice blue he'd ever seen. He froze for a second, the light, clear irises brash against the hazy mellow backdrop. The colour was sharp, but the shape soft, contrasting strangely. He stopped drinking, but kept the glass pressed to his lips.

The owner was a lone female sat at the bar across the room. She was young, barely out of her teens by the looks of it, with long greasy blonde hair. She was a very plain-looking girl aside from her eyes, and held the sense of someone who was innocent, naïve maybe, but had still seen her fair share of shit… What was someone like her doing in a place like this? And as her gaze left his it made him fleetingly wonder, what was  _he_  doing in a place like this? He wasn't one for adultery, never had been and he briefly entertained the thought before his attention was stolen by a gruff yelling from the other side of the room. He watched on with loose interest as the woman by his side reached for her drink. A minor disagreement had occurred across the bar. That was all.

Gorou put his booze back down and swept his gaze to the woman by his side. Ai, her name was… man, what an overused name. Then again, she was a beauty. She deserved a name like that.

_'And I don't deserve a woman like her.'_

He stopped and seemed to space out, the thoughts from seconds earlier flashing through his mind again. It seemed he was finally addressing the guilt that had been gnawing at him ever since he sat down with this woman. But damn it if life wasn't hard sometimes! His wife's mother was just so overbearing it was almost impossible to live with her. And it was this, he surmised with sudden insight that probably made his wife so cranky all the time. He was a family man, always had been. Being one of six children growing up, how could he not be? And just recently he'd wanted to start a family of his own with Hana. He did love her, he really did. But with his mother-in-law hanging around all the time, how were they ever meant to be alone?

 _'Come on man, go home. You've never cheated on Hana you don't wanna start now, do you?'_  he nodded to himself and began to down his drink. He would apologise to the beauty by his side and head home. Talk to Hana, try and see if he couldn't get that miserable old harpy she called a mother to move out so they could have some privacy. Yeah, that's what he'd do.

His gaze moved back over to the bar, absently searching for the girl who'd changed his mind, the one with the blue eyes. But she was gone. He scanned the room for her before setting down his empty glass. Something told him he'd seen her before; that blue was almost impossible to forget…

But little did he know he'd never lay eyes on her again, seeing as his life only had three minutes and twenty-nine seconds left to run.

* * *

**2**

The hoot of an owl accompanied the soft clapping of sandals and steady rhythm of crickets. It was a warm night, no breeze and plenty of cloud cover. Two dark figures crested a shallow hill, headed west toward a small rundown town. They were looking for someone, well actually two people; one for financial purposes and the other for who knows what purpose. Annoyingly, their leader had yet to specify.

The taller of the two breathed in the warm air, then blew it out again, hot breath curling against the material of his mask and back against his face. Heat was one of the very few things he didn't know whether to like or not. Though, living the extensive years he had, he knew to a certainty that there were very few things he liked, and out of them, those he liked best where books and money. Mostly money, but reading gave him something to do with the rest of his time.

The usually vivid emerald eyes were weary and dull. Kakuzu was tired, very tired. After two weeks roughing it outdoors with a complaining insomniac for a partner, there were few who wouldn't be. But even in this ragged state his guard was still alert. His line of work demanded it.

Reiji, on the other hand, was about ready to drop. He may be part of the Akatsuki now but he wasn't immune to exhaustion. Kakuzu just didn't seem to understand that. The man's bright gold eyes betrayed the fact he was tired; they never seemed to lose their glow no matter what and right now they directed their flare into the back of the Falls Nin's head.

"How much further?" the pale man sighed, slumping while he walked.

"Not long."

"Good," pause, "We  _are_  staying in an actual room tonight, right? I swear my back'll snap if I spend another damn night out here."

Kakuzu just grunted, not willing to voice the fact that  _yes,_  he would be spending money when he didn't necessarily have to. Though he had to admit, even if Reiji wasn't with him he'd get a room. He'd spent the past two weeks sleeping on nothing but dirt and twigs, he deserved some R&R. Kakuzu wasn't one to get excited about anything, especially at his age, but he couldn't deny he was looking forward to settling down with his book for the night, somewhere warm, comfortable and hidden away. Of course, he'd have to put up with his partner's shuffling and groaning. When the bastard couldn't sleep, he generally made sure Kakuzu couldn't either, and one of these days it would be the death of him… of Reiji that is. Not Kakuzu.

* * *

**3**

Gorou got up with a tired sigh after watching Ai walk away in a huff, swaying her hips to complete her moody step. She really was something, a hidden gem in a mine of coal. It was just a shame she was in that line of work really. He sighed again and picked up the glasses they'd used.  _'That was a waste of money…'_  he thought with a regretful twitch of his lips and staggered over to the bar. Perhaps he'd had a little too much after all…

Placing the empty glasses on the counter, Gorou offered the barman a single wave which was met with a smile and a nod. He then shrugged into his jacket and made for the door. The warm night air was stuffy and did little to sober him up. But what did bring him back to acute awareness were the two dark figures that walked down the street toward him. There was an odd, slow deliberation to their step, like they knew what they wanted and how they were going to get it. And somehow, Gorou knew these two were here for him. Just like how some people will get a flash of a premonition a split second before it happens.

The cloaked pair stopped a few paces away, blocking the route home. One bulky and tall, the other smaller and quite lanky for a ninja – which he must be judging by the scratched Iwa Hitai-Ate wrapped around his head. Gorou was about to ask who they were when one of them spoke.

"Is this the guy?" it was the shorter one. His voice was gravely, like he smoked sixty a day.

"Mm."

"Well now, how's that for a slice of fried gold?" he stepped forward.

Gorou didn't like the sudden fear in his chest, or the chilling intent in the man's golden eyes. He took a step back, "Wh-who are you?" There was no answer, only a brief vision of the shorter one launching at him in the dim light. And in those short seconds before impact only one thought struck him…

_'Why didn't I just spend the night with Ai?'_

* * *

**4**

Hezā stopped short when she emerged from the ladies and scanned the room… where had the informant gone?

She searched the bar, calmly strolling around the noisy tavern and trying not to let her panic show. Damn it, if she lost him then how would she ever find  _them_?

 _'I knew I shouldn't have gone to the bathroom!'_  she thought as she realised the man she was looking for was no longer in the room. Her blue eyes caught sight of the woman he'd been sitting with, she was now sat snug on some other guy's lap, sipping at the drink he'd bought her. She scoffed and shook her head. Fantastic, now what was she going to do?

She returned to the bar, downed the rest of her drink and headed for the door. Maybe he'd decided to go home after all. It would make sense; from what she knew the man had a wife waiting for him.

Hezā pushed through the exit only to come face to face with a scene straight from a horror movie. Laid out before her, soaking the ground with his blood, was her informant. His wide unseeing eyes stared up at her like a dead fish while his chest continued to rise and fall. Blood welled up in his mouth and spilled over his lips, trickling down into his ears and hair. He didn't have long.

"Fuck," she murmured, taking in the deep gash running from his shoulder to his opposite hip, revealing glistening flesh and the thick pinkish-indigo worms of his intestines. After dragging her eyes over the body, Hezā's gaze lifted to lock with two lanterns of glowing emerald green.

"Well this is helpful," Kakuzu mused. He could recognise those eyes anywhere. Standing before him was the second person they'd been sent to find.

"Huh?" Reiji seemed confused as he cast his gaze over the new arrival, "What do you mean?"

"It's been a while, Hezā," Kakuzu rumbled, ignoring his partner, and her attention was redirected once again to the green eyed man.

As she analysed him she quickly realised by his size, stance and seriously intense chakra that he was way out of her league. The other, although strong, didn't seem to hold a candle to this guy.

"What? Wh–" she stopped as her voice lost any sort of backbone, like the words were just empty shells of syllables that died in the air. It annoyed her that she was afraid and she cleared her throat, determined to speak, "How do you know me?"

"We've met before," he said flatly.

She cast him a cynical look, masking her unease. "Really? I think I'd remember someone like yo–"

"Well you obviously don't," he said as he stepped over to the body and grabbed the collar of Gorou's jacket. "It's a long story and I'm not in the mood. You're coming with us, now let's go," he hoisted the dying man up onto his broad shoulder – making sure the gaping wound wasn't resting against his back – before turning to look down the dark street. Gorou gurgled and more blood ran from his lips, dripped from his wound and spit spotted the ground.

Realisation hit her then, and it scared her that it was yet another thing she couldn't remember. She must have met him during the period for which she had no recollection. She called it The Black Out; the space of time between her tenth birthday and the day she woke up four years ago in an alley. Five years of nothing.

"Umm…" her voice was uncertain, "Go where exactly? I'm nobody, what could you possibly want with me?"

The lanky one scoffed. "You certainly look like nobody." Hezā shot him a disgruntled look and Kakuzu didn't reply. Reiji sighed, "We don't have time for this," and suddenly he was gone, appearing in mid-air behind the girl and whacking his heel into the juncture of her neck. She fell to the floor, lucky not to crack her skull on impact.

Kakuzu turned at the noise to see the body on the ground and glowered at his partner. "You could've caught her; if she's got a concussion she could be rendered useless to us. And it would be  _your_  fault."

"Whatever. Let's find somewhere to hole up for the night, I'm beat."

Kakuzu glared at the back of Reiji's head as he yanked the unconscious Hezā up over his shoulder. One of these days that attitude was going to be the death of him. Of Reiji, that is. Not Kakuzu.

* * *

**5**

The need to urinate was becoming increasingly harder to ignore.

Reiji paced in a short line. "How much  _longer_?" Moodily, he spun on his heel and marched back the other way. "Probably too busy haggling, the bastard." He stalked further down the alley and around the corner of the hotel they were going to stay in. He watched the windows above, wondering which one Kakuzu would pop his freaky little head out of. "Ugh, come on!… Ah screw it," Reiji unzipped his pants and, after glancing both ways, relieved himself against the wall.

Once done, he returned to the corpse and the unconscious girl, glancing up at the windows again, then looked down at their prisoner. He cocked his head again at the tell-tale lines of a bulky necklace hanging low around her neck, the charm concealed by the dark cloak she wore. He knelt down and reached his hand into the cloth to pull out the pendant at the end. But what hung on the thin rope chain wasn't quite what he was expecting; a small bottle filled with curling dark shapes he couldn't distinguish no matter how many angles he scrutinised them.

The blonde made a quite moan. She nudged her head to the right and Reiji let the strange charm fall. The girl's brow dipped into a frown before he tightly pressed his fingers to that certain spot, also known as the 'human off switch'. Hezā's neck fell limp again and her head rolled back to the side.

"What are you playing at?"

Reiji whipped his head up to see Kakuzu's eerie eyes peering down at him. "She woke up!" he spat.

The miser rolled his eyes. "Just get up here," he said and disappeared from the window.

Reiji grumbled under his breath and grabbed the corpse, careful to make sure he didn't get any blood on him. That would be a bitch to get out. Hefting the body onto his shoulder, he leapt up to the window his partner had previously leaned out of and landed, gluing himself to the outside wall as he passed the deadweight to Kakuzu. He then collected the blonde before disappearing inside.

"Why is it so  _hot_?" the redhead asked. He quickly made for the switch near the door and turned on the fan that dangled above the beds. The blades began to turn and the man sighed. "Ah, better… So," Reiji moved away from the switch and dumped Hezā in the far corner, "that one," – he pointed to the blood soaked carcass – "is going to be exchanged for a bounty, and…" he looked down at the girl beside him, "What do we need this one for again?"

Kakuzu sighed as he sat down on one of the beds, muscular forearms leaning on his knees. "The leader hasn't specified," he said as he began to take off his cloak. "Though it'll probably be for information; we have a common… contact."

"Ho? And just who is this common conta–" the ninja stopped short when a light groaning could be heard from down by his foot.

* * *

**6**

Hezā's head felt like lead as she tried to lift it. A hot pain pierced her brow and she brought a hand up to hold it, screwing up her closed eyes. Her mouth was parched even though the queasy feeling after alcohol was still lingering and a certain muscle in the left side of her neck felt as though it had been pulled.

 _'Was I in a fight? … I swear I didn't drink_ that _much,'_  she thought, then the events that took place not ten minutes ago flashed through her mind,  _'Oh God, where the hell am I?'_

She opened her eyes to see a dark cloak with red clouds printed on it. Inside said cloak was one of the Shinobi she came in contact with earlier. Instantly her muscles bunched and she backed herself further into the wall she was leant on, watching the man cautiously. He didn't say anything and merely scoffed while the girl tried to piece together what had happened. But there was a short a gap in her memory from when she'd last seen them to now.

 _'They must've knocked me out,'_  she realised and sat up, making eye contact with the man before her. It was the lanky redhead that stared grumpily back.

She shifted her gaze around the small hotel room, before landing it on the eerie green eyes of the Shinobi who'd said he knew her. He caught her regard and she desperately tried to dredge up some information, anything that would tell her who on earth this guy was.

"Who are you two?"

The skinny man glanced at his partner, before moving away from her to take off his cloak and throw it on the unoccupied bed. "Reiji."

"Kakuzu," the emerald eyed man said. She took a moment to give him the once over, noting he was incredibly muscular, even by Shinobi standards. He wore a cowl and mask, leaving only his cool green eyes to stare dispassionately at her. She wondered why he covered his face up like that. The insatiable urge to ask was overwhelming, but the serious nature of her situation kept her naturally curious character in check. His skin was tanned, complimenting his eyes and appearance; he was sturdy and strong, like earth. Her eyes traced the black threads and scars running up and around his bare arms, trying hard to quell her curiosity and see if she could recall anything familiar about them. But she couldn't.

Holding in a sigh, she glanced up at the other man, whose red hair he was currently pulling out of a short ponytail. He was pale and thin, like a pole. His clothes hung from him as though he were a washing line, his sharp collar bones peeking out from his dark brown shirt. His irises were gold and bright, and flashed like jewelry in the sun, hurting your eyes to look at. His ears were pointed, and would've given him a graceful, eflin look if it weren't for his large hooked nose.

He appeared to be wearing the standard Ninja attire of Iwagakure – sans the flak jacket – and sure enough, as she flicked her gaze up to his forehead, Hezā saw the navy blue Hitai-ate of Iwa with a long, scathing scratch running through it.

"Okay…" she drew in a breath, "What do you want with me?"

"We've been sent to apprehend you and take you back with us to meet our leader," Kakuzu said.

Hezā tilted her head back. "This sounds like I'm being abducted by aliens."

"Well unfortunately for you, you're not; you're being abducted by Akatsuki instead," Reiji said, unbuttoning his shirt with his back to her.

"A-ka-tsu-ki," she tested the name on her tongue, "… Doesn't ring any bells."

"I'm not surprised," Kakuzu said, rubbing his temples slowly, his green eyes closed in a scowl. Then he opened them and looked her in the eye. He gained a mordant smile beneath the mask and asked lowly: "How's the arm?"

She frowned, instantly alert. "… How do you know about that?"

"Like I said; we've met before."

This was getting old and she was getting desperate. "So why can't I remember any of this?" The man had answers to her past, answers she'd been searching for for the past four years.

"A seal was placed on your memories, to block out anything about the Akatsuki."

… What?

Hezā stared at him and, picking up on her sudden spike in chakra, Kakuzu turned up his glare in response. The tension in the room skyrocketed as the two Shinobi let loose their power, causing the air to become much, much denser – Kakuzu's enormous sea of chakra drowned Hezā's almost instantly, but she didn't stop. It was getting physically uncomfortable for Reiji to even continue standing there watching them.

"Well, I'm goin' for a shower!" the redhead announced loudly, making quickly for the bathroom – if Kakuzu was about to lose it, he didn't want to be around.

"Why?" Hezā asked loudly.

"Because I fucking need one, alright?"

"I– I didn't mean…" she trailed, caught off guard.

"Oh..." awkwardly, Reiji retreated into the bathroom.

Kakuzu shook his head and returned to massaging his temples. Why did he always get stuck with a shit-for-brains partner? He opened his eyes to scowl at the girl once more. "It was to ensure you wouldn't blab any important information to anyone," he said.

"So you mean… you lot fucked up my mind? Is that why there's a fat-ass chunk of my past missing?" Hezā's voice grew steadily louder as her anger flared freely again. They stared at each other for a second. "I don't believe this! I would've kept my gob shut you know – a simple death threat would've sufficed, but nooo – now my whole life's been  _ruined_  thanks to you peop–"

"We  _were_  going to  _kill_  you," Kakuzu growled loudly. The blonde held her tongue. "But our leader decided to keep you alive on a whim," he finished, hoping the information would shut her up. "… Now keep your voice down; you're pissing me off." To be truthful, she'd been pissing him off ever since she woke up and started with all these damn questions.

" _I'm_  pissing  _you_  off?–"

She had been about to go on to say "that's rich", but before she could draw breath, she was in the air, hanging by the throat, dangerously close to the rapidly rotating fan above. She winced up at it, before realising she could scarcely breathe. Instinctively she gripped the thick wrist of the man that held her with her only hand, trying to pull herself higher so she could inhale. She moved her eyes down to barely see Kakuzu's glare. If looks could kill, she'd be dead.

"How…? I didn't– … I didn't even see… you move," she managed.

The man just glared up at her. "You're still as hard-headed as you always were," he said, "It's just as bad as your insatiable curiosity about things that have absolutely  _nothing_  to do with you… I would've thought you'd have learned your lesson the first time," he glanced at the empty left sleeve of her cloak before sneering, "but I guess not."

Hezā tried to swallow but found she couldn't. Kakuzu felt the pitiful movement beneath his palm and held her there for a few more seconds, before lowering, then dropping her to the floor. He sat back down on his bed, watching the girl uncurl herself before him.

"You–" Hezā swallowed and gulped in air, "You know how I lost my arm?" All distain for the man was forgotten at the prospect of information and she sat up, rubbing her abused throat, watching him hopefully. But he didn't answer. Deciding she'd be best not to push him, Hezā slumped against the wall and remained silent, staring bleakly at her feet.

A tangible silence settled over them for a few minutes before anyone spoke again.

"Where is it?" he asked.

Still staring jadedly at her toes, the girl countered, "Where's what?"

"Don't play dumb. It's obvious there's nothing in that sleeve," Kakuzu replied impatiently, "What happened to your arm?"

"… Ripped off, apparently."

"I mean your replacement." she was trying his patience again.

Hezā glanced moodily at him from the corner of her eye, before adjusting herself so she was more comfortable, "… It was stolen… about three weeks ago."

Kakuzu gained a smug look. "Well aren't you clever?"

"I'm going to get it back," she said, "It's what I've been trying to do ever since it was taken…" she looked over at the dead informant, "And he had the information I needed. I've been tracking him for a while now…"

Kakuzu glanced at the corpse blankly. He didn't bother to voice the fact that she would have no time to look for her arm now that she would be travelling with them – he didn't want the headache it was bound to cause. So instead, he leaned across the bed to fish out a small, tattered book from the folds of his cloak. He sighed and moved so he was sat leant against the headboard, before opening the hardback manuscript. He would read until he felt sleepy enough before retiring for the night. It wouldn't take long; he could feel his poor eyes drooping already.

Hezā watched him, admiring the man's thick arms despite herself. Then she frowned, "Where do I sleep?"

"Where do you think?"

… Fantastic.

* * *

**7**

She watched him for a few seconds, the idea that she would be spending the night on the floor not really appealing to her.  _'It's better than the streets,'_  she thought, spacing out.

Her ears noted the running water had stopped a split second before the sound of the bathroom door opening brought her back to reality. She turned her head to see Reiji standing there, a hand stretched up to steady the tower of white fabric wrapped about his noggin, while his other hand gripped a bigger towel tied securely around his narrow waist.

The blonde had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing at how much of a pansy the man looked. Her gaze scanned over his chest quickly, noting the sufficient lack of muscles and she briefly wondered how the redhead ever become a Shinobi, never mind come to join an organisation that harboured the likes of Kakuzu. She had no idea what this Akatsuki was all about and she didn't like to judge on appearances, but looking at the green eyed man compared to his partner, she felt Reiji seemed to be somewhat lacking.

Reiji's golden eyes flashed as he noticed her staring. "What are you looking at?" he snapped, scowling.

Hezā paused for a moment, glancing down at his bony torso once more – it was rather reminiscent of a skinny pre-pubescent boys', she noted, supple skin and soft bone.

"Nothing," she said.

"Better be," he hissed before stalking over to his bed with an air of arrogance. Hezā watched him before getting up. If there was a free shower available, she'd bloody well use it.

She entered the bathroom, locking the door behind her after making sure there were enough dry towels. The cream tiled room was steamy thanks to Reiji, and the portrait mirror hung on the wall above the sink was misted over. Hezā reached up to pull a chord which she assumed operated the extractor fan. At the distant humming sound of the mechanism beginning to work, the teen wondered into the middle of the small room, managing to remove her shin-length grey cloak, torn navy tunic and fishnet tank top with her one hand. Her bra stayed put for the time being as she leaned over the sink and wiped away the condensation clogging the mirror.

Oh God, was that a pimple?

The girl cursed and the amount of space between her head and the glass was gone in a flash as she zoomed in for a closer inspection. She pulled a face at the smug looking spot and drew back, taking herself in. She grimaced at the greasy state of her hair and absently poked the side of her dirty smudged cheek before dragging the finger down to her lips and pulling the bottom one down to reveal her teeth. Surprisingly, her gnashers were in good shape for someone who was homeless most of the time. They were the one thing on her body she made sure she looked after properly, no matter what. She was just thankful they hadn't grown wonky or anything.

The girl's blue eyes moved from her mouth to trace down her neck to the juncture between it and her deltoid muscle. They then followed along the smooth declining gradient to where the downward curve of her shoulder should be. Instead there was a dull, slightly concave metal plate that covered the space her left arm used to occupy.

She brushed her fingers over the area, twisting her lips as she fingered one of the four ugly bolt-like holes spaced out in a square within the metal plate. These holes were where her mechanical arm would inject its 'Stakes' into her body, fixing itself into place. It tapped into her nerve and chakra network, becoming part of her, just like her original limb had been. Everything about it had been painful ever since she lost her natural arm back when she was… when had she lost it? And who gave her the mechanical arm?

Hezā dropped her hand. It was questions like these that had been bugging her ever since she woke up a little over four years ago. And thanks to her intensely curious nature, it frustrated her that she had no answers to them.

She sighed and finished undressing before entering the shower. She still didn't know exactly why these guys wanted her, but she certainly knew what she wanted from them; her memories. She lightly banged her head into the tile wall, the water cascading down her face, dripping from the point of her nose, the curve of her lip. If staying with these guys meant figuring out the riddle those five missing years of her life held, then she would do it. She would travel with them to meet their leader or whatever.

She scoffed and shook her head. It really did sound like she was being abducted by aliens. "Take me to your leader," she murmured in a strained voice and smiled.

* * *

There are more chapters and this story is updated first [here](http://www.fanfiction.net/~hurlstien).


	3. Chapter 3

_Another One Bites the Dust_

**1**

It was five forty-five in the morning and Kakuzu was wide awake. The sun's rays were just beginning to peek through the gap in the curtains and filter into the small hotel room as he continued his reading from the night before. Soft snores were the only indications that Reiji and the girl were still asleep, whereas the thrum of early birdsong could be heard from outside the window.

Although Kakuzu ended up falling asleep at past midnight last night, and so garnered no more than five hours slumber after a full day of travel, he had awoken refreshed and well rested just fifteen minutes ago. He noticed that, with age, he'd begun to sleep less and less. He found himself waking up at ridiculously early hours for no particular reason, other than the fact his batteries were fully charged. Then again, it's not like he abhorred sleeping so little; he quite liked waking up before the sun rose, and having time to read without the unwanted conscious company of his partner there to annoy him. He felt as though it were only him left in the world and there was no one left to bother him, no one to give him orders or bitch and moan at him. It was serene. And for a man like Kakuzu, moments like these were incredibly hard to come by.

As he let his thoughts float, he briefly wondered if he would eventually become an insomniac like Reiji – who, he noted, managed to fall asleep as soon as his fat head hit the pillow last night, and had slept through to the morning completely for once. It was probably thanks to all that ground they covered the day before. Kakuzu had roughly worked it out to be around twenty-seven miles they'd trodden, traversing from the west of the Fire Country to the northern regions of River.

He glanced his green eyes over to the sleeping redhead, who lay rigid in his bed like a vampire. His arms were folded atop his skinny chest, a pink sleep mask covered his eyes and his mouth hung open. Kakuzu scoffed, his attention effectively taken from his book for the time being. He inhaled and remembered the bounty in the corner of the room. It was beginning to stink, badly. He rested his head back on the headboard, closing his eyes. Lucky for them, there was a collection point en route to Ame where they'd been ordered to drop off the kid. They wouldn't be going out of their way in order to collect the cash and get rid of the dead weight – no pun intended.

A buzz vibrated in his head and he opened his eyes as Reiji pulled off his sleep mask.

"Goddamn, is that the leader?" the redhead croaked, rubbing his eyes.

Kakuzu just grunted and closed his eyes again, waiting for the familiar voice to enter his head. He'd never been contacted this early before; perhaps Pein was feeling rather sadistic today…

"It's too damn early for this," Reiji hissed, sitting up and scratching his noggin, the unruly shocks of tangled red knotting with his hand.

" _Kakuzu-san, Reiji-san, have you reached the village yet?"_

"Yes, and we have the girl," Kakuzu said, feeling a little proud that they'd finished half of their assignment before expected – something rare indeed for Kakuzu and any one of his previous partners.

" _Good."_

"Why do we need her Leader-sama?" Reiji probed, asking the question both shinobi wanted the answer to.

There was a short pause before Pein answered,  _"She has information on Orochimaru that will be useful to us."_

Reiji frowned, "Is he the dude who attacked that Uchiha kid?"

The Falls Nin grunted in response. Having only been a member of Akatsuki for little less than a month, Reiji was rather out of touch with their history. But he'd garnered this and that from the rare idle chat during the odd meeting or by wheedling it out of Kakuzu.

 _"Hurry back to Ame. I'll be waiting,"_  and with that, Pein broke the connection between them, leaving the two in silence.

Kakuzu turned his head to Reiji who stretched and yawned, "Wake the girl."

* * *

**2**

"Nothing too expensive," the ex-Falls Nin said and Reiji sighed.

After entering the roadside Restaurant, Hezā had briefly dithered about which murderous maniac she should sit beside. But Reiji plopping his feet on the seat next to him made her mind up for her. Kakuzu it was.

While the two Akatsuki picked up a menu and began scanning the orders, the girl turned her attention to the room around her. It was a spacious establishment, with dark polished wooden flooring and an outside seating area. There weren't many other guests around. In fact, a couple left as soon as they caught sight of the trio, the crimson clouds spelling trouble like a red rag to a bull.

Even now they continued to receive cautious stares. She sighed and leaned her arm on the table, watching the waiter cautiously make his way over. A small, slightly confused smile tugged at her lips at his wariness. Why was everyone so nervous?

"I-Irasshai. May I take your orders?" he asked, holding a small pad and pen up to chest height, ready to jot. The blonde observed it shaking in his clammy hands.

Reiji grunted, not bothering to acknowledge him with a glance. "I'll just have a bowl of mixed rice," he sighed, not being able to find anything he liked, "and some Kukicha tea."

"Gyūdon and a pot of Soba-cha," Kakuzu said. The waiter looked to Hezā once he'd noted the order down.

"Uh," the girl wavered. Gyūdon didn't sound too bad did it? "Make that two, thanks, and a glass of water." Kakuzu looked at her, then at the menu in his hand. The waiter bowed, before hurrying off to ready their food. "Kakuzu-san, why is everyone so-er, edgy?" Hezā asked, noting two more wary glances cast their way.

"Akatsuki isn't exactly a well-received organisation," he said.

She frowned, but didn't enquire any further. Instead, she asked another question, "Why did Gorou have a bounty on his head?"

"You were tracking him, surely you would know something."

"Uh, well… It never really came up?" she had a sheepish look about her. Kakuzu restrained a sigh. "But someone must've wanted him dead, who was it?"

"It appears he was working under cover for someone," Kakuzu said, "And it was an anonymous source in Konoha who placed the bounty. I wouldn't doubt it has something to do with their Root division."

"Oh…" Hezā knew exactly who Gorou had been working for; Orochimaru. It's why she'd been tracking him. So whoever placed the bounty was trying to make things difficult for the Sannin.

They didn't speak another word while they waited, Reiji choosing to lean his weight against the wall beside him, while Hezā let her head fall onto her arm tiredly. Kakuzu was the only one to remain stoic. But as he let his blank gaze drift downward, he noted something in the corner of his eye; a dark smudge in his vision. He looked to see what seemed to be a small black tattoo on the curve of Hezā's right shoulder.

His brow creased,  _'The curse mark…'_

Reiji asked, "How long 'till we reach Ame?"

"We should be there by tomorrow morning," Kakuzu replied, taking his gaze off Hezā as she lifted her head.

"What's in Ame?" she asked.

"It's where we're taking you," Kakuzu said.

"Why?"

"To meet our leader."

Hezā wanted to sigh, but refrained; she'd heard this before. "Why?" she could feel the man tense beside her without even having to touch him.

"You know information concerning an ex-member of ours," Kakuzu made sure to keep his voice low – as hard as that was for him given the mood he was in, "A man named Orochimaru."

The mention of his name being uttered by someone else made Hezā's heart jolt. The man they wanted information on was the same man she needed to find. "What makes you think I'd know about him?" she asked, playing dumb.

Kakuzu scowled down at the girl beside him, "Because he was your master a long time ago and if you didn't know anything about him you'd be a piss poor excuse for a ninja. Not to mention as good as dead."

Ah.

"… And he belonged to Akatsuki?" Hezā copied the man in keeping her voice low.

"Yes," Kakuzu finished as he spotted the waiter tottering over with their meals. Hezā followed his eyes and kept her mouth shut.

* * *

**3**

The River Country was named so for the long, winding river running directly through it, from its beginnings in the northern mountains, to where it met the sea in the south. Tansui no Kawa, or The Freshwater River. It was along this river that the trio travelled, north towards the mountain range that divided River from Rain. They had passed into the threshold of the mountains a little more than two hours ago, and were now climbing along the mossy rocks that littered the canyon floor.

The body had been dropped off at the collection point around five hours ago when they reached it. Reiji and Hezā having to wait for the meticulous miser as he counted every last note to make sure it was all there. Said notes were now packed tightly away in a metal briefcase held in the iron grip of Kakuzu's left hand. That had taken at least twenty minutes, after which Reiji had voiced the fact he was starving, Hezā quickly throwing in that she was too.

The air was getting colder and thinner the further and higher they went and an emaciated mist was creeping up around them. A loud rumbling echoed through the rocky gorge and Reiji's hand slapped to his stomach for the fourth time in five minutes. Despite the fact they had stopped at the Restaurant two hours ago, being a vegetarian with a stunted pallet, Reiji had ended up ordering something not quite as substantial as his meat-eating counterparts. And even then, he left the bits he didn't like, much to Kakuzu's vexation.

Gyūdon, on the other hand, proved to be a very tasty meal indeed, as Hezā had found out. She'd promptly shoved it down her throat, pausing only for water, then scoffed the rest of Reiji's mixed rice that he didn't want, said man scowling at her as she'd done so. And, much to her great disappointment, Kakuzu, the violent man of mystery, had opted to keep his tea towel on his head, un-tucking the bottom of the black mask from the headdress so his chopsticks could reach his mouth.

Reiji pressed his hands deeper into his stomach, trying to make the gargling monster shut up. The rumbles echoed throughout the mossy canyon and Hezā let her eyes follow the sound up into the trees that over hung the cliffs at the very top, casting a mystical green tint over everything. She kept her head tilted back to stare at the soft glow of sky as sunlight tried to penetrate the canopy above, then her eyes caught movement.

Three things happened at once. Hezā tripped, the cliff above exploded and Reiji sneezed.

Within seconds dislodged boulders were showering down on them and in a flash Kakuzu was by Hezā's side.

"Move!" he grabbed a fistful of her cloak and hauled her like he might a sack of potatoes. Moving at blinding speed, Hezā barely registered hitting the rocky turf before the sheer cacophony of sound numbed her ears. Boulders crushed the earth where the three had been standing just a second ago, blasting a cloud of dust into the air, engulfing them.

On the ground and winded, Hezā watched the dark shadow of the newly made mountain with wide eyes. Then she heard the delicate sing of shuriken. Tapping into her chakra she was on her feet and jumping backwards out of the veil of dust and into clean air, a rusty kunai at the ready in her only hand. The sound of metal on metal met her ears and she quickly checked the area around her, making sure no one could sneak up on her.

As the dust settled, she made out the swift momentum of a fight occurring between three people, one of those being Kakuzu. Reiji, she noticed, was just standing off to the side, watching. She frowned. Wasn't he going to help? He  _was_  Kakuzu's partner, right?

But all too soon was the battle over. Kunai and shuriken littered the ground around two limp bodies. Hezā checked the area around her once more and walked towards the two. But she stopped when she heard Reiji say something inaudible and noted the tenseness of Kakuzu's figure. She frowned, what was wrong him? Was he hurt? Or…

What happened next threw her into shock. One second Reiji was talking, his relaxed stance suggesting amicable relations with the man before him. The next, Kakuzu's blackened arm was speared through his chest. Hezā could only watch, frozen to the spot.  _'Why has he just… killed his own partner?'_

Kakuzu slowly brought his hand back through the chest cavity, holding it there for a second, before yanking it out completely. Reiji fell limp and dropped to the floor, dead. The pale face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed in a silent scream, stared aghast at the sky. Hezā stood still, trying to calm her rapid pulse and squinting to see what Kakuzu now held in his hand. But she had a pretty good guess.

The Falls Nin stared down at the slick, hot heart, crimson blood coating his palm. He felt his anger begin to dissipate and his breathing evened out once more. Damn that had felt good.

Unzipping his Akatsuki cloak, Kakuzu reached in and pulled his shirt to one side. His stitches unravelled and he felt the skin over his ribs give and slacken. There. He carefully pushed the organ past the folds of tissue and under his sternum, inserting it into his chest. The burning sensation of a mask forming on the lower left side of his back made him wince, but it was over quickly. This would make five hearts now, the maximum he could carry.

He sighed and glanced down at the lifeless redhead as his stitches got to work sewing him back up. The Leader wasn't going to be happy. This was the shortest amount of time he'd managed to refrain from killing his colleague. All the others had at least made it a month, but not Reiji. No, this bastard was the worst suited to be his partner. Pein should've done a better job in picking him.

Kakuzu glanced up at a disturbance to his left and saw the girl stood a good few meters away, looking a little lost. He'd almost forgotten about her.

She gulped as Kakuzu turned to face her. But when he didn't make a move to come any closer, the blonde relaxed a little. Still, she couldn't tear her gaze away from his intense stare. Those eyes were perfectly round green lanterns floating in the minty gloom of the mist.

"You'll be next if you don't mind your tongue," he growled and she nodded.

* * *

**4**

Hezā kept a good distance between herself and Kakuzu after that; not wanting to be within arm's length for fear of pissing him off with her mere presence. They travelled for a further five hours before finally stopping at the base of a small boulder clay cliff. The sun had long since set and the girl had been put to work collecting wood while Kakuzu set up a simple barrier jutsu that would surround the area and alert him if an intruder passed through it.

Presently they sat opposite each other, neither of them bothering to make convocation. Earlier, Kakuzu had told her that Amegakure was just a three hour walk away, but they would get there in the morning; the area surrounding the Rain Village was marsh and bog land, and navigating it in the dark would be problematic … maybe not for him, but for Hezā, certainly.

The blonde hugged herself a little tighter as the cold night air brushed through the camp, making the fire flutter and dance towards her. She breathed in the heat and ash, then sighed and watched the Falls Nin who sat cross-legged with his back against a low-branched tree. His eyes were closed and each arm was slotted into the opposite sleeve. He seemed content enough… content enough for a question maybe?

She twitched her lips dubiously. Ever since the attack earlier that day, when Kakuzu had mercilessly killed Reiji, for no reason it seemed (not that she minded), she'd been immensely curious of what exactly he'd done. She knew he'd taken something out of the man's chest, and she had a damn certain feeling that that something had been the heart. But what had he done with it?

"Do you mind?"

Hezā jumped as he opened his eyes in a tired scowl, the fire's embers making the green turn a smouldering gold.

Her mouth began moving a second before any words came out, "I… was just wondering what you did with the heart… from earlier."

He stared at her for the longest moment, lazily debating whether or not he could be bothered to tell her. Hezā, on the other hand, felt as though she wasn't going to get an answer. She broke eye contact for a split second, before gulping and flicking her gaze back to his once more.

"It's for a jutsu of mine," he finally replied, closing his eyes, "And if you survive long enough, you might get to see it."

* * *

Irasshai =  _a Japanese word meaning 'welcome'  
_ Gyūdon =  _literally meaning 'beef bowl'; Gyū = 'cow' or 'beef' and Don = short for Donburi, the Japanese word for 'bowl'. It is a Japanese dish consisting of beef, rice and onion.  
_ Soba-cha _= Roasted Buckwheat tea  
_ Kukicha _= Twig tea, also known as Bōcha_


	4. Chapter 4

_The Zombie Brothers_

**1**

Pein didn't turn at the sound of the door opening; he already knew who it was, having recognised and traced Kakuzu's five immense chakra supplies through the rain as soon as he'd entered Ame. The hearts the man horded made it rather easy to realise who it was; he felt like five different people contained in one body. So it would be quite accurate to say he had the strength of five men.

At the same time, the Rin'negan user had analysed the second Chakra signature as the pair travelled through the village. He deduced that Kakuzu had bust a fuse somewhere along the line, seeing as the second signature certainly wasn't Reiji's. No, this signature was little in amount and rather concentrated. It flowed with a twisting carelessness to it around the owner's chakra passages. It must be the girl he'd sent for. At least the prisoner had been delivered safely.

"Leader-sama," Kakuzu bowed his head before the cluttered desk.

Pein stood with his back to them as he stared out of a large circular window. They were currently standing in the tallest building in Ame. The huge statue of a Priest with Rin'negan eyes, stood like a sentinel above the wet concrete streets below. And from its left, iron ringed eye, Pein observed his kingdom.

The room itself was a circle, with concrete for walls and a wooden floor, upon which a circular rug had been laid beneath a large oval shaped desk. In fact, as Hezā quickly glanced around, she noted that many things in the room seemed to be either circular or oval shaped, even the bookcase, which was warped to fit against the room's curving wall.

Hezā copied Kakuzu in bowing just in time before the pale man turned, revealing his pierced face and steel eyes. Rings of dark gray pulsed delicately around his pupils as they dilated to adjust to the light in the room. Even with her crap eyesight, Hezā knew this must be some sort of Dōjutsu. As she straightened from her bow, her gaze traced the multiple studs and rings that adorned the man's skin. It was rather artistic. Especially the snake bites, they suited him.

Breaking her from her appraising stare, Pein spoke. "Hezā, I presume," she nodded, "I must say, you've changed since we last met."

Hezā swallowed, "Forgive me, sir, but I cannot recall ever meeting you; my memories are being blocked beyond my control," she bowed her head.

"Mm yes, I'm afraid that was a necessity," Pein said as he sat down at the desk, "Out of the two choices I had concerning what to do with you, I assure you, you wouldn't have liked the other." Hezā remained silent and the man studied her for a second, before continuing, "Your memories will be restored in due time. But first, I want you to tell me everything you know about Orochimaru."

Hezā conjured up an image of the man and opened her mouth, "Orochimaru… he's one of the three legendary Sannin of the Leaf, and a Nuke Nin… I remember he had lairs of sorts in the Rice Field Country– several, in fact, there are four in total," she said, racking her brains for any more information. "He liked to experiment with jutsu and used humans as guinea pigs."

"Can you recall the layout of these lairs?"

She was silent for a moment, before nodding, "I think so. They were all rather similar to each other. I know how to get to the dungeons and from there to the surgery rooms and labs… Orochimaru always had a study and it isn't far from them."

Pein watched her for a few seconds, before bringing his piercing gaze to stare at a particular scroll laid amongst many others on his desk. "It appears your information will be useful… well done," he paused for a moment, then looked to Kakuzu expectantly and asked, "So what happened to Reiji?"

Kakuzu sighed inside, but didn't allow his reluctance to show, "I lost it. With all due respect Leader-sama, the man was a complete idiot and didn't understand the concept of teamwork."

Pein leaned back in his chair, "I had a feeling you two wouldn't get along, but I was short on applicants… still, I didn't think he'd be gone this fast." Kakuzu remained silent as Pein watched him, "No matter, I already have another partner lined up for you. I think you'll find he's a little more…" he smirked and narrowed his eyes, "durable."

Kakuzu bowed his head, "I hope for his sake, he is." He then approached the desk and placed something on it, before stepping back.

Hezā leaned to the side to peek past Kakuzu's bulky frame, and saw a small, shiny trinket sitting on the table. She squinted to make it out to be a ring with three black, horizontal lines inscribed in a circle of burnt orange. It was kanji, but she didn't know what it meant.

Pein watched the ring for a second, "You can meet him tomorrow, but until then you should recuperate; I have a feeling you've barely stopped throughout this mission." Kakuzu nodded, grateful, and Pein locked gazes with a lost looking Hezā, "Luckily for you, Sasori-san will be returning to Ame tonight, if you want your memories back you should go see him tomorrow, he's the only one that can un-block them for you."

Hezā's heart leapt and she bowed, "Arigato, uh, leader-sama."

"Just tell him who you are, and that I sent you," Pein said, "Now, Kakuzu-san will show you to a room you can stay in until you are needed again. You are dismissed."

* * *

**2**

Opening the door to exit her new, albeit small, room, Hezā looked both ways down the dim corridor. Pein had said someone had returned to the base last night or something… and that this someone could help her get her memories back. She glanced both ways again, before deciding to go left.

' _What did he say the guy's name was again? Satori? Mamiri?'_  she knew it ended with an 'ee' sound and that it had an 'a' in there somewhere.

The floor boards creaked gently as she turned a corner. She had no idea where this man's room was, so right now she was intent on tracking down Kakuzu. But even that was becoming problematic; the miser only showed her to her room yesterday, before promptly slamming the door behind her and disappearing. She hadn't even known where the kitchen was until earlier that morning, when hunger forced her out of bed at an ungodly hour, and put her navigation skills to the test.

Deciding she would have better luck sensing the man before she found him, Hezā stopped and focused. She felt five large reservoirs of Chakra all resonating from different directions. Two were somewhere above her, one below that seemed to be moving away from her location, one back the way she'd just come and the last up ahead. But of course, distinguishing Kakuzu's energy was child's play; his felt like a tsunami of different, contesting Chakras packed into one body – which, she had to admit, was weird. So it was safe to say that the signature up ahead was his.

Steeling and convincing herself that he had absolutely no reason whatsoever to rip her head off, Hezā continued before arriving at what she assumed to be his door. She took a deep breath, before knocking.

"Kakuzu-san?" she tried, leaning her head in a little to see if she could hear any movement, "Sorry if I've interrupted you; I just need to ask you something…" hearing nothing, Hezā leaned in further, "Kakuu-zu-saan?" she sang, wondering if he was purposefully ignoring her.

In the silence she could hear her own heartbeat pulse through her chest and neck, before–

"Whoa!"

The door swung inwards and she had to catch herself before she fell into the ominous figure now stood in the doorway. Kakuzu frowned down at her, "What is it," it hardly sounded like a question, and seeing the look in his eyes Hezā decided she'd interrupted him at a very bad time. Perhaps he'd just woken up?

"I just need to know who this guy I'm meant to see is, and where I can find him," she explained, looking up at him hopefully.

Kakuzu's eyes narrowed, "His name is Sasori and he'll probably be in his room."

"Oh thanks, where's that?" Hezā asked, happy he was being… cooperative. Kakuzu just pointed back the way she'd come before slamming the door in her face.

Strands of her hair whipped about her head as she flinched. "Well, that went better than expected," she mused and set off down the corridor, deciding that the Chakra signature she'd sensed behind her earlier must be the man she was looking for.

After following the hallway all the way back past her own room, she eventually came to the door the energy was emanating from. Taking a deep breath, she let it out in a heavy sigh, before letting a shiver of excitement run free down her spine; she was finally going to get her memories back. Those blank five years were going to be lit up with knowledge about where she'd been, who she knew and what she'd done. She was going to  _find_  herself again.

She swallowed, knocked and waited.

* * *

**3**

The tightening of a screw was the only sound. The soft squeak of metal against pliable wood was a delicate melody to his ears as Sasori tightened the tack into place. The only light source in the room came from a large, iron gas lantern that hung above his head. The young looking man – some would say boy – was seated at a bulky desk, hunched over a remarkably humanoid puppet. His brown eyes shining unnaturally in the light, his calm face betraying nothing of the passion he felt for his craft, the only emotion left he seemed capable of feeling – aside from annoyance.

A hard knock ruptured the man's trance, and he froze at the presence of a foreign Chakra signature. He turned his head to the door, quickly deciding what to do. Could he really be bothered with company? It was troublesome, especially seeing as it was someone he didn't know. And it was times like these he wished he'd installed a peephole…

But as he pondered, something struck him; there was something oddly familiar about that chakra. He frowned, genuinely curious as to who this person was and why they were in the Akatsuki headquarters of all places. Getting up, he crossed the room, stopping before the door, his fingers resting lightly on the handle.

"Who is it?" he asked. His voice was calm and smooth and detached.

"My name is Hezā. And I was told you could help me get my memories back."

Sasori's eyes widened slightly at the name and his mind was flooded with images of a young blonde girl with ice blue eyes… Yes, those eyes he couldn't forget. They were like her signature, while everything else about her was plain.

"… The remnant," he murmured quietly, surprised, despite himself. The scorpion blinked back to reality and opened the door to find those same eyes staring back at him. They hadn't lost their vivid clarity over the years. "My, my… it's been a while," he said as a smirk played at his lips. "The last time I saw you, you were unconscious in the back alley of some dump village… whatever made you come back?"

* * *

**4**

When the door had first opened Hezā had to keep herself from staring too much. Sasori was young, and his brown eyes were lined with long lashes, complimenting his dust red hair. His features were delicate, feminine almost, which contradicted the fact he was an Akatsuki. If she was honest, Hezā expected everyone in the group to look and act like Kakuzu. That man just fit the bill perfectly.

"The last time I saw you, you were unconscious in the back alley of some dump village… whatever made you come back?" he wore a smirk on his face as he appraised her from the darkness of his room.

"I haven't returned by choice. But while I'm here I thought I may as well get my memories back; I've been missing them dearly for a while now," she said with a smile, a little surprised at how smoothly that had come out. "Umm, I was told you could help me?"

The man paused. "I see," he opened the door further, stepping back to allow her entrance. "I  _was_  in the middle of something," he sighed, "but this won't take long; have a seat," he gestured to a short stool in the corner of the chamber and Hezā plonked down on it, feeling even smaller than she already was. While Sasori pottered around at a large desk that took up at least a third of the room, the blonde began to feel out of place, shuffling the seat forward and trying to find a comfortable position.

Sasori beckoned her over before turning to fiddle with the things on his desk again. She grabbed her stool and wondered toward him, taking the time to look around. In the dim light she could make out hands and feet, heads and torsos of carved puppets hanging from the walls and there was even one hung on the back of the door. They were haunting to look at; their eyes hollow with perfectly carved, feathery lips crafted with dutiful dexterity. With her interest piqued, Hezā ogled without shame, before noticing Sasori staring at her.

"Did you make all these?" she asked.

"You'll know soon enough," was his airy reply and he began weaving a complex series of handsigns. "Now close your eyes and try to relax, this won't hurt… much."

Hezā's head rose and she frowned.  _'Hurt? Who said anything about it hurting?'_  but she didn't have time to ponder. Once Sasori had finished he knelt down and placed two finger tips on both of her temples. He muttered something under his breath and as soon as the last syllable was uttered a stabbing pain jabbed at her temples. It drilled its way through her head and her spine bucked. She gritted her teeth so hard she felt she might push them back into her gums. Her muscles tensed to rocks, and she was shaking as she tried desperately to deal with the pain that sparked through her head like the live end of a snapped cable.

She couldn't hold it in any longer; strangled groan escaped her as images flooded her brain. It was overwhelming. Flashes of Orochimaru and Mai, of Sasori and even Kakuzu flew through her mind before the agony was cut off abruptly. She gasped and fell almost completely limp, her head hanging free from Sasori's hands. A thin film of sweat had materialized on her brow and her eyes remained tightly closed, unwilling to dispel an important memory…

…

" _Damn it!" a young girl slammed her fist on a table in frustration, "Screw this, I can't do it!"_

_A man was sat at a desk with his back to her on the other side of the room, his hair a warm crimson in the orange glow of the candle light. With a sigh he turned in his seat to look at the girl struggling to draw with her newly fitted arm – the very arm he and his partner made for her._

_She slumped into the table and, completely forgetting who it was she shared the room with, whispered, "I give up."_

_Sasori's wooden gaze held no sympathy for her, his blackened heart had no room for softness. But when she'd been laid up in that metal railed bed, fighting for her life, she'd asked him – pleaded and begged him, that if she did survive, to teach her how to draw again, how to be an artist again._

_At first, he would have none of it. He'd said everything he'd done for her up until then – treating her wound and helping design and construct her new arm – had been a return favour to his partner, her 'guardian', Orochimaru. But eventually her pestering got through. He'd surrendered for the peace and quiet. After all, it wouldn't take much; just tell her to do a few things, that's all._

_How wrong he'd been._

_The arm was designed to lock into the nerve and Chakra networks, allowing her to move it and use Chakra, just like anyone else would. But learning how to do so from scratch took time and patience – both of which neither of the two had much of. The girl was left handed, and so had had to relearn how to move the piece with the amount of control she'd had with her original, but what she'd been most concerned about was drawing. That was her art._

_He remembered how she'd told him she wanted to be an artist the very first time he'd met her._

_Sasori rose from his seat and strode across the room, stopping next to her and scrutinising her work. She still had a long way to go if she wanted to regain the ability she used to wield. His soft brown gaze shifted to her. She was a royal pain most of the time, but even he had to admit; she'd had some serious skill for her age._

_He looked off to the side. Perhaps that's why he'd relented in the end. It would have been a tragic waste of talent for her to not pick up a pencil again. And even though her style of art differed from his own, as an artist, he felt slightly obliged to help her._

" _If you give up, you'll never get anywhere," he said, and the blonde raised her head from the desk. She glanced up at him with a pathetic look in her eyes, those icy blues now baleful and weak._

_He opened his mouth to speak more…_

…

"… For the artist, hand and heart are one and the same; the essence of humanity – Life itself." Hezā murmured, and Sasori's gaze rose to meet hers. The girl gulped as she tried to regain her breath, "In other words, if I gave up, I gave up my life too…" she paused, "You told me that when I was learning to draw again."

Sasori's brown eyes held hers steadily for a long second, but their usual indolence returned quickly. "The technique works then," he replied. And like that the moment was broken.

Hezā nodded once, noting his reluctance to indulge in the memory. But she knew by the look he'd given her, he could remember.  _'And now I can too…'_  she thought with a goofy smile as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

"I'm not finished yet," he said, taking the seat at his work bench.

Hezā watched him curiously as he opened a drawer and put away some things that were still loose on his desk. She squinted, the cogs in her brain turning with progressive vigour. Something about him was dancing on the tip of her tongue, the way he moved, it was so… wooden. And now that she thought about it, there wasn't a bed in the room either. In fact, there were no items of furniture present that you would normally find in a bed chamber. But why?

He looked back at her with that listless stare of his, "If I unblocked all the memories at once, the results could be… displeasing. And seeing as the Leader must need you for something, it looks like I can't have any fun."

Hezā frowned, ignoring his latter comment, "What do you mean, 'displeasing'?"

"I mean that I could end up destroying some brain tissue," he said, resting his elbow on the table and propping his head up on his knuckles, "And you don't want that." No she did not. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he didn't sound very enthused, but she knew now from her past memories of him, Sasori was always like this.

"Uh…" and now she'd totally forgotten, "Something to do with Orochimaru." Sasori's head lifted at this and his relaxed gaze hardened. Hezā shrugged, "Your leader just asked me for everything I know on the man, before putting me up in a room until he needs me again."

His features relaxed a little, "Hmm…"

"Do  _you_  know why he wants this information?" she probed hopelessly; it seemed whenever she asked a question around these people, it was once in a blue moon she ever got a full, straight answer.

Sasori blinked, "No. I don't."

' _Figures…'_  she thought, glancing off to the side. She let her eyes drift through the dull light and trace humanoid figures, then her gaze halted on a particular marionette sitting across from her, behind Sasori. She squinted, catching something shimmer at her in the dim glow of the gas lantern. A short blade curled from the puppet's forearm and a strange plum coloured liquid rippled along its surface.

"Sasori-san, you use poison with your puppets?"

The redhead nodded and watched her as she cast her gaze back down to the puppet on the floor. "You helped me with that a long time ago," he said.

Faint recognition registered in her eyes. "The lab…" she said, "I remember you taking samples of my blood."

"Yes, your Kekkei Genkai is one of a kind, and I wasn't about to let the opportunity pass me by," he gauged her for a second, "But the more of your blood I took, the more I realised what wide range of potential it had; each and every sample was unique. The array of effects you are capable of inflicting upon your enemies is astounding. Not only that, but you are also immune to many strains of poison… If it were possible I'd have you stay so I can figure out how it works," there was a cunning glint in his eyes as he spoke. "But enough about that, prepare yourself," he said and he rose from his seat again, weaving the required handsigns, "This is the last one."

* * *

**5**

The door to the leader's office creaked open and Kakuzu stepped into the chamber, his piercing green eyes scanning Pein's office for his new partner. He was here to meet this newbie and see if he'd last any longer than a day. But there was no one other than the leader in the room.

Pein turned from his position staring out of the eye of the statue they were in. His hands hanging limply by his side, face a blank canvas like always. "He isn't here yet."

Evidently.

Kakuzu frowned. If his new cohort was going to make a habit out of being late he certainly wasn't going to last long. Time is money. Money is power. And Kakuzu didn't actively prolong his life just to wait around for some slack-assed-bum.

"I would try to be more lenient with this one," Pein advised. Kakuzu restrained a scoff, like Hell that was happening. "He's quite... volatile." there was a short pause. "The girl has changed," Pein mused, "I'm curious… where did you find her?"

"In a small village, close to the north-eastern border of River."

"Not too far away then… was she like that when you found her?" the miser quirked his brow and the leader elaborated, "Dirty, dishevelled clothes, arm missing…"

"Mm," Kakuzu nodded.

"It seems life hasn't been too kind while she's been gone." Three loud knocks broke the calm atmosphere, and Pein caught the miser's eye as he called, "Come in."

The door swung inwards, hitting Kakuzu's arm hard. The sound of hinges wobbling from the collision reverberated through the room, before silence settled.

"Fuck, sorry."

The callous apology came from an albino man as he entered the study. He wore a drab grey cloak that was left open to reveal his well toned chest. Purple eyes stood brazen amidst his pale features and silvery hair, while the curve of his face was strong, but still held roundness to it, giving him that pretty-boy look. He had a disinterested expression on his face as he kicked the door shut.

Kakuzu's eye twitched. He counted to ten in his head and took a deep breath. Then he looked at the newcomer – his new partner. The two held eye contact for a long moment, a mix of curiosity and premature animosity hanging in the air.

"Who're you?" the albino asked.

Kakuzu noted the calculating gaze hidden behind intense fuchsia eyes, the scratched Hitai-ate of Yugakure around his neck and… blood? The Falls Nin stared at a shallow gash crossing the man's pectorals, but his new partner didn't seem to notice, or care, that he was bleeding, and instead, continued to gaze at him expectantly.

"Hey, quit staring," the man retorted with a frown, "It's like you're feeling me up with your eyes."

Kakuzu glowered at him.

Seeing it as a good time to step in, Pein said, "Kakuzu-san, this is Hidan-san. He will be your new partner."

The miser didn't say anything.

Hidan tut-ed. "Nice to meet you too," he said, before addressing Pein, "By the way, sorry I'm late; I was in the middle of an important ritual." He didn't really sound all that apologetic, but at least he'd explained why he was delayed.

"Ritual?" Kakuzu asked.

"Hidan follows a strict religious cult, and is seen as a high priest amongst its followers," Pein said, "Their God requires payment in blood and sacrifice."

Kakuzu held back yet another sigh. Fantastic.

* * *

**6(66)**

Well, wasn't this guy just a bag o' laughs? Not that Hidan had really wanted a cheery partner, but dear Jashin, this guy was a little  _too_  boring. Not to mention the staring at his chest. That was just creepy.

The albino appraised the man again, taking in the stitches, the mask, the constant frown. He certainly  _seemed_  intriguing – which was a stark contrast to his, thus far, shitty personality. Most people were either freaked out or, in some rare cases, interested in his religion. The former ending in death, the latter ending in death or recruitment, it was either one, there was no in between. But this guy? He just stood there looking like he'd rather be nailing his balls to the wall.

"So what is it you do around here?" Hidan asked.

"I'm the treasurer; I take care of Akatsuki's finances and accept bounties to fund our activities."

"A bounty hunter?" Hidan scowled, "I hate people who kill for money."

"Then good luck being my partner."

"Che!" Hidan scoffed and pointed at the green eyed man. "Listen, I've got a short fuse and I'd love to have it out with you right now," Kakuzu subtly tensed, fixing Hidan with a glare. The Albino smirked as he lowered his hand, "But it's against my religion to leave someone half dead."

The tension in the room rocketed as the two formidable Shinobi stared each other down. Brazen violet against searing emerald.

Kakuzu understood exactly what he meant; Hidan would've made a serious attempt on his life were they not partners in Akatsuki – though, that had never stopped him.

Feeling his anger boil, the Falls Nin slowly counted to ten in his head again. He couldn't afford to lose his temper. Not here. There was no telling what could happen, and he wasn't about to risk any one of his hearts by messing with Pein. "Do what you want. I have more important things to attend to," he sniped, not giving Hidan a second glance as he passed him and out the door.

Meanwhile Hidan seethed, he was seriously beginning to regret joining this organisation; he had a shithead for a partner, was obliged to wear a poppy themed cloak and he had to paint his nails, for fucks sake!

Scowling at the retreating back of Kakuzu, he dashed his head to the side with a tut, and turned to face Pein who regarded him with liquid steel eyes, "Any chance of you getting me a different partner?"

He got nothing but a dangerously thick silence in return.

* * *

**7**

_The rain lashing at the panes, drowned a shriek that echoed through dark corridors of Akatsuki HQ._

_A thirteen year old girl lay tense in a growing pool of her own blood, trying desperately to breathe and clutching at the torn, concave flesh where her arm used to be. Said limb now lay in the corner, crushed beyond all recognition and thrown across the dark room following an unprecedented fit of rage._

_A tall man stood stooped and breathing deeply above her body. The pathetic light from the single bulb overhead highlighted the half visible bridge of his nose and heavy set brow, the rest of his face hidden beneath the navy cloth of his mask._

_She looked up at him. Hot jade eyes joined with ice blue, and as they connected time seemed to stand still for a second._

_Then the floorboards around the man's feet exploded in shards of splintered wood. Thick bodies of snakes hissed into his hazy red vision and wrapped around his arms and torso, tightening as he instantly began to struggle. They wouldn't hold for long._

_With the man somewhat restrained, a shadow flashed through the room, stooping to collect the limp body of Hezā as she battled to keep herself conscious. The gold, serpentine eyes of Orochimaru were unmistakable as he fled the scene._

…

"Shit!" Hezā gasped as she vaulted back to earth. Sasori's fingers fell from her temples and her head collapsed into her hand as she sucked in deep breaths. Surely it had been more painful that time round.

Sasori watched her calmly, vaguely interested in her reaction to the memories he'd just released. "That's all of them."

"K-Kakuzu," she said and sucked in a breath, before growling: "That  _bastard_!"

The scorpion had an amused smirk on his face, "May I remind you that it was partly  _your_  fault."

Hezā looked up at him, the glow of the lantern above them giving him a deluxe creamy complexion. She took one last deep breath before sighing and rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. He was right.

"I know I pissed him off, and… I learnt my lesson the hard way," she admitted, "… But bloody hell, I only wanted to see his face!"

Sasori produced a humourless scoff.

To get a grasp on  _why_  the events of that night took place, one would have to understand that Hezā's insatiable curiosity, coupled with Kakuzu's intriguing appearance, secretive ways and violently unstable temper, was the perfect formula for a disaster just waiting to happen. She'd only been thirteen, and she hadn't known him enough to realise he had such a short fuse. Neither did she fully comprehend the hostility of the environment she was growing up in.

The puppet regarded the girl before him. Her head remained planted in her hand, her flaxen locks falling forward to cover up her features. His auburn gaze slowly made its way to her left shoulder and the empty sleeve that hung from it. As soon as he'd opened the door he'd known she didn't have the arm with her. And seeing as it was an incredibly delicate and painful procedure to attach, or indeed, remove the bionic limb, Sasori could only assume she'd lost it somehow. And that irked him.

"Where's the arm, girl?"

Hezā lifted her head at his sudden question. Now she'd reclaimed her memories, she knew it was he who had helped construct the missing limb in the first place. So she couldn't blame him if he was a little pissed that she didn't have it with her. She really didn't want to say, but there was no ignoring an Akatuski, "Uh… stolen?"

Sasori's features didn't change. But those dark brown orbs held annoyance and a trace of disappointment.

"I'm going to get it back," she assured, "I have a feeling Orochimaru has something to do with it, and seeing as Mai is with him, he's the person I need to find to get them  _both_  back."

Sasori cocked his head a fraction at the mention of the other girl. "Mai… she was the other experiment, wasn't she," he said. Hezā nodded as he put the information together. He hadn't thought of either of the two girls in years, and now one of them suddenly shows up at his door and everything had come flooding back.

"Now I've got my memories back, I remember finding a note on my bed when I returned to my room that day… so that's how I got it," Hezā murmured the latter to herself and reached into her cloak. Sasori watched while the girl pulled out a yellowing scrap of parchment and unfolded it.

.

_Hezā,_

_Right now, as I write this, I fear for both your life and mine. I have no choice; I must leave with Orochimaru-sama._

_If I never see you again, just know that everything I've been through, every high and every low, I couldn't have wished for anyone better than you by my side. You were the rainbow to my rainstorm, the shade in my desert, and you saved me, in every way I ever needed to be saved. So thank you._

_May your glass always be half full my friend,_

_Mai_

.

Hezā's blue eyes lingered on each and every word written, now being able to remember that she'd found the note on her bed one rainy afternoon.

"You learnt to read?" Sasori asked. Hezā hesitated, then shook her head, embarrassed.

"No… I only ever had those few lessons in the first couple of months I was here," she said, remembering how Sasori had walked in on one of those sessions to witness her poor progress, "Orochimaru deemed it too much trouble to teach me. After all, I was only an experiment to him. Just something to learn from," she took a breath and sighed, "So Mai decided to try and teach me. By the time she left I knew enough to be able to roughly read this. But that was it, everything else I learnt I forgot long ago."

There was a silent pause between them.

"Why do you think Orochimaru has something to do with your arm being stolen?" Sasori asked.

"Because when the thieves ripped it out, I swear I heard one of them say his name," she said, casting her gaze back to the table as she recalled her ordeal, "Of course, I was in the process of blacking out from the pain… so I could be wrong. But it's all I've got to go on."

There was another short pause and Sasori inclined his head slightly, "Orochimaru left because an experiment of his failed," he began, clutching her gaze in his. "He attacked a fellow member and promptly fled. As you can imagine there wasn't much time to pack, so he chose to take Mai with him seeing as she was closest to him at the time and the most…" his eyes narrowed, "successful."

Hezā blinked her gaze to the floor. Mai had always been the gifted one; not only could she actually read, thanks to her wealthy background, but she'd been the only one out of the two of them to gain full control of her curse mark, that, and she was amazingly sharp, picking up jutsu like a sponge soaks up water.

"That explains the note then," Hezā muttered, waving it nonchalantly before stuffing it back into her cloak and planting her chin on her palm. "She didn't want to leave me in the dark… By the way, Kakuzu-san said I was going to be killed when Orochimaru left, but Pein had you block my memories instead… I don't mean to sound ungrateful but, why?"

"For the very reason you're here, it seems," the man replied, "If we ever needed to hunt down Orochimaru."

* * *

**8**

Pacing down the corridor at a ridiculous speed for a man going on ninety, Kakuzu wanted nothing more than to just shut himself away from the world – preferably  _before_  he destroyed something. No distractions. Just him. Silence, peace and darkness.

But turning the corner to his room, he found none other than the blonde annoyance leaning against the wall, close to the door of his sanctuary. Her single arm wrapped around her waist while her hips were pushed out a little in a lazy stance. The dim lighting the dusty bulb above her granted made her seem as though she were stood under a filter that was a sickening shade of yellow. Every colour seemed mellow and old, matching the worn environment around her.

She lifted her head as she noticed him and his scowl deepened – though you wouldn't be able to notice, it was practically etched into his face. Great. What was she doing here?

He didn't slow down and Hezā could tell he wasn't about to give her any of his attention. So she decided to try and take it instead.

"I got my memories back," she spoke loud and clear, making sure he heard her in his obviously grumpy state, "All of them."

What did she want, a medal? But he knew what she meant; she now remembered it was he who had ripped her arm completely out of its socket… and he couldn't give two shits about it.

But then, she didn't expect him to.

"Have you met your new partner yet?" she asked, standing straight from the wall and letting her arm fall to her side as he marched past her.

He merely grunted as he reached his room.

"What's he like?"

"A moron," he growled, slamming the door behind him.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

_Two and a Half Ninja_

**1**

_Orochimaru was an intriguing man, of that Sasori was certain; one of the three legendary Sannin of the leaf, now turned against his own people and dreaming of his village's destruction. But then, that wasn't much different from himself. Being a scientist, the ex-leaf shinobi practically demanded Sasori's attention. Couple that with the man's strength of drive and it created someone who could wield terrifying power and influence. Orochimaru was ambitious, cunning and powerful – everything the red head had hoped his new partner would be._

_But what he didn't expect was someone who took in scrawny little children._

_Sasori stared down at the two sleeping bodies, a mop mess of cream and chocolate hair covering their small faces. They were slumped upon a makeshift cot in the corner, peaceful in their slumber. There was nothing special about either that he could see, and the puppet frowned. What were they doing here? And in Orochimaru's room? The Suna Shinobi's lax gaze held a spark of curiosity as he tilted his head toward the fourth being occupying the chamber._

_Orochimaru's arms were crossed, robed rear resting against the desk. Golden eyes lined with a bruising purple gazed back at him. The Sannin knew what he was thinking._

" _Those are currently my most prized experiments," the snake said._

_Sasori's eyes narrowed. Experiments?_

" _Both have incredible potential; I just need to unlock it."_

…

However, Sasori's understanding of that potential plummeted the next morning when he'd found the two racing round the kitchen, throwing wet sponges at each other.

The ghost of a smile haunted his hard lips as he leaned back in his seat. But that didn't matter now; at least, for his old partner's sake, one of them had been successful.

* * *

**2**

"Sasori-san?" Hezā called, pushing the door open and stepping softly on the concrete floor.

She'd been to his room but he'd failed to answer. So that meant he was either purposefully ignoring her, or he was elsewhere. She just hoped he hadn't left the building entirely; she wanted to talk with him about Orochimaru and his past with the Akatuski. And seeing as the puppet master was the Sannin's partner while he was here, she figured he ought to know better than anyone. She had been wandering the halls looking for him, not really knowing where it was she was going. But just couple of minutes ago she'd picked up on his controlled, hollow feeling chakra and followed it to the room she now stood in.

Book cases, crammed untidily with books and scrolls, stood double her height in the rectangular chamber. The wall ahead of her was lined with them and three others stood perpendicular to the rest, with space in-between to browse. To the far right was a huge square window with a wooden table sat before it accompanied by two large chairs. And upon one of these chairs, was Sasori, an arm resting delicately on the wooden surface, a huge, thick book laid out in front of him. He stared at her from his position and she bowed. He nodded his head once and she wondered closer.

"What is it?" he asked, blinking his gaze back to the book.

"I was just wondering if you could tell me anymore about Orochimaru," she said.

"I believe you've known him longer than me," Sasori replied easily, not lifting his gaze from the worn pages.

Hezā shrugged, "Yeah but… I was just a kid then. Every adult is God's gift when you're that age." she offered him a lopsided smile as he lifted his eyes to gauge her.

He sighed, "Fine. What is it you want to know?"

Hezā smiled and pulled out the other chair, taking a seat, "Um. Well… what was he like as a partner? Did you get on?"

Sasori leaned back, keeping his molten eyes on the girl, "He was much the same as he's ever been; ambitious and consumed with revenge."

"Revenge on who?"

"Konohagakure."

"The leaf village? Why's that?"

Sasori sighed again, "It's a long story, but I'll tell you the basics; he wasn't made Kage."

Hezā frowned, "Huh… that's a bit childish."

"I guess it depends upon how much it means to you," Sasori replied, and Hezā shrugged. "His curious and ambitious nature complemented my own perfectly, and we achieved many great things while we were partners… one such example being your prosthetic arm."

Hezā blinked, "You  _both_  made that?"

"Originally it was his idea; he designed and created most of it. But I established the nervous system and its connection to the body." Hezā nodded, letting her eyes drift down to the table. She seemed caught up in her own thoughts while Sasori watched her, "Do you remember your arm had its own Kekkei Genkai?"

"Hmm?" she lifted her head before shaking it, "No… but wait. That can't be possible." Sasori allowed a small smirk to grace his lips, "It feeds off my own chakra in order to perform a jutsu, so the only Kekkei Genkai it could ever wield would be mine."

"Incorrect," he breathed, enjoying her confusion, "Tell me, how is it chakra is made?"

"… Uh…"

The man sighed, "Ninja produce chakra through the combination of two energies: physical energy, drawn from cells, and mental energy, gained through experience and meditation," he paused, "As for the bloodline limit, just as the name suggests; it is a special technique passed down through blood. Most often found in clans, though it can also be found as a mutation in the rare individual, much like your own."

Hezā bowed her head, "So if Chakra needs cells of the Human body, and a Kekkei Genkai originates from a person's blood then..." she lifted her gaze to his, her shocked expression telling him she got it, "There must be body tissue… in the arm?"

Sasori nodded, "Orochimaru saw it a test of his abilities as a scientist to abstract a Kekkei Genkai from one and place it into another… He had tried to do this with many live test subjects," he paused briefly, "but none of them lived through it; the two opposing chakra denied each other and destroyed the surrounding tissue, leading to excessive haemorrhaging and a drawn out death. It's a bit like when you transplant stem cells from one person to another; it is better to have a biological match so there is a higher chance that the body won't reject and kill the foreign cells. Chakra is just a lot more volatile."

"But if their energy matched they would be from the same clan, so there would be no point," the girl added.

"Exactly," this kid caught on quick.

"So…" the blonde fixed him with an expectant gaze.

"By the time the twelfth victim failed him, Orochimaru had given up on ever succeeding with his venture. But, when your unfortunate accident occurred, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to try again. He hunted down and killed a member of the Jinkourai clan, took his heart, and transplanted it into your arm."

Hezā looked up at him, more than a little dumbstruck, "That's… interesting."

"Mm," Sasori cocked his head slightly, intrigued that she didn't know half the things her lost prosthetic limb could do or why.

"But… it's a heart, it needs blood to function. So surely that would mean that without my blood it would…"

"Not necessarily," a flicker of a smirk lifted his face; this is where it gets clever, "The chakra the heart produces is exactly what it uses to sustain itself. Right now it will have reduced to a dormant state, meaning it won't be beating. It won't be beating because there is no blood for it to beat," he explained, "Almost like it is frozen. The only thing running around it will be the amount of chakra you left it with before it was taken. It is this which will keep the heart alive in place of your blood."

"Oh…"

"Orochimaru created the arm so that your own chakra could travel through it as well as the Jinkourai clans,  _without_  them coming into contact with each other. That way, you are able to use two types of Chakra safely."

Hezā frowned, "But… how can the heart create its own chakra without its mind to give it mental energy?"

"Your mental energy determines how your body naturally reacts to things, no? A more experienced mind can condition certain reactions, while an inexperienced mind is more instinctual and just lets things happen. And reactions are  _nerve_  based," Sasori explained, "I myself created it so your own mental energy is transferred through your nerve passages and into your arm, reaching the heart and allowing it to create its own chakra."

Hezā blinked, "That's genius."

The man merely continued to silently regard her. Suddenly a break in the bank of clouds outside let a stream of bright sunlight burst through the window, making Hezā squint and bow her head. Hitting Sasori's back, the radiance silhouetted the puppet and his form was shadowed. He remained unchanged, but as he continued to watch the girl, he noticed how her pupils contracted violently in the light, altering the shading of her irises to an impossibly pale, silvery blue. He watched, transfixed despite himself. Before being awoken as the clouds blotted out the sun.

"No wonder the guys who came after me treated it like it was some one of a kind antique…" Hezā mused, planting her chin in her hand.

Sasori frowned at her ignorance, "That's because it is. And don't you forget it, brat." Hezā blinked up at him, not expecting the harsh tone. Sasori didn't dwell on his response – he'd meant for it come out that way; something told him this churl was getting too relaxed around him and he didn't like it. But apart from that, something else caught his mind. "… If they were treating it so well, these thieves can't have been your common rabble; they must have had some idea of what the piece is capable…" he bowed his head a little, his young, seemingly naïve features taking on a sinister glaze. "Though, they are quite missing the point of it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure you are not so careless as to forget the main attribute of the piece?" Hezā just stared at him, and for the first time in eight years Sasori felt like slapping his forehead. "Super strength," he growled. "It was I who designed the mechanics for use of this ability. Using miniscule chakra catalysts the arm is able to use pinpoint accuracy in order to let out single, pure, intense bursts of chakra at one time, imitating the technique not many ninja are able to fully master; inhuman strength.

"That arm can withstand the weight of a thousand men piled atop it should it need to. And it has a melting point of over 500°C. Add to that its waterproof and corrosion resistant nature… it is practically indestructible," there was a hint of pride in his voice as he spoke.

"True beauty," Hezā said, recalling the man's eternal view on art.

Sasori blinked his brown eyes to hers and gave a single nod.

* * *

**3**

Rubbing her eyes and giving a great yawn Hezā stumbled down the dim hallway half a step behind Kakuzu.

Her brain was fuzzy but she was desperately trying to clear it; when the ex-falls shinobi had practically slammed her door down just a few minutes ago, he'd growled about going to see the leader, so she had to be as awake as possible. Though, it didn't help being dragged out of bed by someone with monster strength and a temper to match at half five in the morning.

As she walked, her mind wondered back to her time spent with Sasori the day before. After their talk about Orochimaru and her missing arm, the two of them had delved into a deep convocation about art and its many forms. Hezā voiced her opinion, saying she preferred illustration and concept art, which is why she understood the Puppet Master's plight. In return, Sasori affirmed his passion for wood craft, puppetry and what he saw it stood for. As he talked, Hezā remembered just how devoted he was to his craft; going as far as to even turn his own body into a puppet.

During the time they conversed, Hezā quickly built up a tall wall of respect for the man and, given his usual antisocial attitude, was surprised he even entertained her company for so long. Soon after the art though, came the subject of the newest member amongst Akatsuki's ranks. Hezā supplied that it was probably Kakuzu's new partner, to which the puppet master had scoffed and said that the idiot certainly wouldn't last long. When Hezā had asked what he was like, Sasori had replied by saying much the same as Kakuzu had when she'd asked him: He's a cocky, loudmouthed brat with absolutely no respect for art.

Okay, so maybe not  _exactly_  the same as what Kakuzu had said.

The Suna Nin had indeed met this man, having literally walked into him on his way to the library yesterday morning. The newbie hadn't been very apologetic and, after Sasori had given him one of his signature 'you're-an-imbecile-now-shut-up-and-get-the-hell-o ut-of-my-face' looks, he instantly retaliated with a spew of curses and a rather tropical insult.

" _If you know what's good for you, you'll keep out of his way. Don't be typically stupid and go looking for him. Curiosity killed the cat,"_  were Sasori's words of wisdom, and considering the mess she'd gotten in to with Kakuzu once upon a time, she decided to listen for once.

Of course, now that she had her memories back she'd entertained thoughts of escape from these guys. After all, she'd gotten what she wanted out of them and now all that was left was to track down Orochimaru and somehow get Mai and her arm back. But she'd dismissed the idea for few certain reasons, notably that while she was here she had access to food, clean water, a bed, showering facilities and a roof over her head. But also, because she had every ounce of confidence that she would fail in her venture. They were Akatsuki for heaven's sake.

The pair ascended the spiralling flight of stairs before walking down a short hallway and stopping outside the door at the end. Kakuzu reached it first and he knocked before the two of them entered at the sound of Pein's admission. Upon entrance, Hezā found the leader seated in his chair, a scroll on the newly tidied desk before him. But he wasn't alone. Looking to her right she saw a tall albino man dressed in the Akatsuki attire – sans shirt – stood with his arms crossed and a frown in place. Said frown promptly deepened when he saw her.

"What's with the midget?" he exclaimed and Hezā dead-panned as she reluctantly took her position between the two men.

Pein held back a sigh, "Hidan-san, this is Hezā-kohai. She has information regarding your target for this mission. Hezā, Hidan will be Kakuzu-san's new partner from now on, so I expect you to regard him as you do Kakuzu, a full member of Akatsuki. From here on out you will be their subordinate, and as such, will take orders from them."

Hezā was surprised, but tried her best to hide it as she bowed, "Yes, Leader-sama."

Hidan's scowl softened as he turned his attention to Pein, and he uncrossed his arms revealing a chiselled chest as his cloak hung open from the waist up. The coat itself looked a little too small for him, the sleeves riding up past his wrists and the material being tight at the hips where it was still closed. He had around his neck two items, one a circular silver pendant hung on a beaded necklace and the other a Hitai-ate, but of what village, she couldn't be sure. The symbol had a long rigid scratch struck through it.

Pein eyed them each before picking up the scroll on the desk and handing it to Kakuzu. The miser quickly unrolled it and held it out in front of him to read as the leader began to speak.

"It has come to my attention that our old friend Orochimaru has gotten his hands on a Bijū," Pein stated. Hezā frowned; what the bloody hell was a  _Bijū_? A similar expression flickered across Hidan's face too, while Kakuzu lowered the scroll a little, looking to the leader.

"Who the Hell's Orochimaru?" the albino asked. Kakuzu wanted to smack him.

Pein fixed Hidan with a hard stare, "He is one of the three legendary Sannin of the Leaf and a former member of the Akatsuki, and as such, very dangerous. You would do well to take caution.  _All_  of you." Pein gave them each a look, but let his hard gaze linger on Hidan the longest. The man just scoffed. "His plans for the beast are unknown, but it must be retrieved. This will be your mission."

The Falls Nin nodded as he rolled the scroll back up, "Yes, Leader-sama."

"Kakuzu, as Akatsuki's treasurer I expect you to maintain the collection of funds, but don't let it cloud your goal," Pein said, "As usual there will be a couple of side quests you will need to complete, as well as your main objective. They too have been noted down in the scroll.

"Now, Hezā," the girl lifted her head, "I understand you are in need of clothes." the shitty attire she presently wore said that much. "I'm sure if you search the other spare rooms on your corridor you will find something." Hezā was surprised at the generosity and quickly bowed.

"Thank you, Leader-sama," she said.

He nodded, "You may leave when you are ready, dismissed."

* * *

**4**

Hezā couldn't deny she was excited. Having Hidan and Kakuzu with her meant she'd have backup once they found Orochimaru. She wasn't a fool; she understood that she'd have a better much chance getting back Mai and her arm with them, than without them. With Kakuzu's experience and strength, and Hidan's... well, Hidan, she'd be a Hell of a lot safer if it came down to a confrontation with the Sannin. Of course, she had to survive with her new superiors first.

She yanked open the wardrobes double doors one at a time, her eyes scanning the bare bar before her. Damn. She was in a hurry; after departing from the leader's office, Kakuzu had told herself and Hidan to pack and be readily waiting at the entrance to the tower in fifteen minutes. So, suffering a heart attack when she realised she still needed to find everything she'd need and seal it away in her travelling scroll, Hezā had gone on a clothes rampage, intending to grab anything and everything she could get her hands on. But so far, she'd found fuck all.

She was about to close the doors again when something caught her eye. Stuffed down at the bottom of the wardrobe was a pile of dust encrusted clothes and Hezā fell into a crouch to quickly sift through them. Most of the items were stained, torn or so old they were wearing away in places, but she decided she was used to that anyway, so what did it matter?

She found a pair of Akatsuki bottoms and leg warmers she'd seen Kakuzu and Hidan wearing, and held the pants to her hips to see if they would roughly fit her. Nodding with a smile and feeling like she was getting somewhere, Hezā wadded them up into a pile and returned to sorting through the rest. A large baggy shirt and a pair of threadbare shorts came next, which she shrugged at and decided she could use as sleepwear.

A large, dark red haramaki caught her eye and she picked it up, holding it out in front of her. Thanks to its size she decided she could use it as a tube top and she held it against her to see. Where did they get these clothes anyway? Sure, she understood the need to have spare Akatsuki uniform, but this?

She shook her head, deciding it would have to do, and dexterously rolled the haramki into a ball using her one hand. She could wear it beneath her plain grey cloak and over her old fishnet tank-top. She put it with the others and, grabbing the lot, secured them between her arm and chest.

As she walked from the room, her mind wondered back to the time she spent in this very building as a kid. Back then the Akatsuki'd had this place as a safe house, while another building outside of Ame acted as the headquarters. But, judging by the fact that Pein had his own office set up here now, the HQ had moved during the time she'd been gone.

She remembered the missions she and Mai would go on with Orochimaru and Sasori, the former teaching them jutsu and various techniques as they travelled and she wondered if it would be anything like that with Hidan and Kakuzu. She gave a huff. She highly doubted it if Hidan was going to be an arse like his predecessor and Kakuzu was prone to fits of ape shit. It made her wary of the two of them, and she was suddenly struck with an intense fear.

What if they  _did_  kill her? Being a ninja and having lived over half her life on the streets, death was on her mind a lot. But being the nonchalant, lazy, laid-back person she was Hezā had never fully acknowledged the fact that she could actually die. It just didn't seem conceivable. She was a naturally positive person by nature and if she was ever down, she was never down for long. But it was only now that she realised she'd been stuck with a sense of immortality. The sense of dismissing things because she believed it would never happen to her – when actually, it could.

It was like her resolve had wavered. Her confidence leaving her, like back wash on a beach.

She blinked and realised she'd stopped walking and was now wasting time, standing there idly like an idiot in the hallway. She returned to a fast walk again.

She'd just been slapped in the face by reality – but she'd needed it. From now on she wouldn't be journeying under her own steam; she'd be travelling with two highly dangerous S-class criminals who would kill her if she proved annoying or to be a hindrance. She just had to keep that in mind, that's all. She nodded to herself, feeling her normal blasé attitude return. She welcomed it; being confronted with something as scary as reality was unknown water to her, and like everyone else she preferred to be in her own world.

* * *

**5**

The floorboards creaked under Sasori's weight as he softly stalked down the corridor to his room. He was intent with continuing work on his latest little project. He'd yet to properly fix the remaining limb to the body, then there was the preparing of the hidden weapons, the sharpening of the blades, the oiling of the wood and joints, and then, of course, the finishing touches.

The man smiled and took comfort in the coming night, all those hours to work on his art, to refine it, to perfect it. It was one of the things he liked best about being unable to sleep; he had double the time to do as he pleased.

His smile faltered, however, when he noticed something; the door to his room was open. Immediately he halted and felt around for any foreign chakra, listening for the slightest, softest sound. But he felt and heard nothing. Frowning, he continued cautiously forwards, a kunai concealed up his sleeve as he pushed open the door. He stood static in the entryway, testing. But nothing happened. There was no one there.

The red head moved over to his desk, furiously cross with himself for leaving his door open and then  _forgetting_  he'd done so. He'd never been so careless before, so why now?

His mind was caught in its sour, twisting thoughts as he reached up and lit the gas lamp above his desk. The glow spread forth and illuminated the small room, before he turned down its light and spun away from his work surface.

But he froze when something caught his eye; he looked back to see three stoppered little vials reflecting the light of the lantern as they lay side by side on his desk. A dark red liquid filled them all to the brim. Sasori frowned and turned to pick one up. He held it up to eye level, recognising the substance as blood. Then he noticed a single sliver of gold hair clinging loosely to the thin glass of the vial. His eyes widened a fraction. Then he caught himself and closed them, the ghost of a smile on his face.

' _Indeed, how thoughtful of her.'_


	6. Chapter 6

_My Name is Orochimaru and I'm here to Save You_

**1**

"What the fuck is that anyway?" Hidan asked, pointing with his chopsticks at Hezā.

The three of them had taken a pit stop at a shabby, rundown shack of a rest house. They'd left Ame earlier that morning and it was now one o'clock in the afternoon on a cloudy, warm day. They were sat at a table for four, Hezā sitting to the right of Hidan with Kakuzu opposite her so she had a lovely view of his stitch-y face. Even though, as a kid, Hezā had wanted nothing more than to catch a glimpse of what lay under the mask – and had paid dearly for trying to find out – she now felt betrayed. Kakuzu's face didn't look that bad at all; just a line of stiches running from the corners of his lips to his ears. She'd been expecting half his jaw to be missing due to a lucky escape from a bomb, or some rotting flesh maybe. But stitches? He had plenty of those already, it was nothing new. And now that she thought about it, why had she expected anything different?

Hezā frowned. She had her chopsticks poised close to her mouth, which was conveniently filled with rice. She glared at the albino from the corner of her eye while he stared at her chest. She swallowed her food, "Are you gesturing to all of me or just a bit of me?" she asked.

"I'm gesturing at  _that_ ," he said, jabbing his chopsticks at a bottle dangling from a thick string around her neck. He was completely oblivious to the fact she could have – and had – taken that a totally different way.

Hezā glanced down at the pendant before looking back up at him, her foul mood catching up with her; they hadn't stopped since oh-my-god-o'clock that morning and now that they had, Hidan still insisted on nit-picking. "None of your business," she replied, not thinking.

The albino stopped and seemed about as ready to kill her as he would a gnat, "What did you say?"

Hezā was about to repeat herself and couple it with a rude retort about how his cloak made him look like a badly dressed transvestite, when she caught Kakuzu's eye. She sighed, "I… collect snail shells, alright?"

Hidan looked confused and Hezā put down her chopsticks. She held up the little trinket for him to see, and sure enough, trapped inside the bottle were numerous multicoloured snail shells of differing sizes.

"Each shell is from a different species of snail, each collected at a different point in my life," she explained, admiring the piece.

"…  _Why_?" Hidan was baffled. What would posses someone to do such a trivial thing?

Hezā shrugged, "Because," she said simply, "I like snail shells."

"How the hell did you get them all in there anyway?"

"This isn't a normal bottle; it's called a sealing bottle," she began, and Kakuzu glanced at her as he remembered the short lived fad from just over a decade ago. "Back when I was a kid they used to be all the rage to seal things in. But everyone knew scrolls were much more efficient than these farty little things and they went out of fashion quickly, only being used as trinkets. You can fit a shit load of stuff in a scroll, but these bottles are only as big as they actually are. Anything bigger can't be sealed inside," she paused, "A good friend gave me this one," she finished. She dropped the item, letting it fall back into place beneath her drab grey cloak, and returned to her meal.

Hidan gave a humph, dropping the subject as he pulled at his tight fitting cloak. He'd already demanded that he get a new one and Kakuzu had said he could replace it when they returned to Amegakure. But that could take a while. He tut-ed and scowled down at his bowl of mixed rice.

The restaurant around them hummed gently, its occupants talking in hushed tones and small gestures. A warm breeze was blowing in from the cracked open door and the gaps in the slats that ran from floor to ceiling at the front of the shop. Smells of salted pork, boiled rice and peppers, of broiled fish, butter and sake hung in the air, the heat from the kitchen intensifying the scents.

Muttering unintelligibly, Hidan took his chopsticks in hand and plucked a pea from amongst the grains of his rice. With a snap of his wrist, he flicked it, and there was a deathly silence as it bounced off Kakuzu's cowl covered head.

Hidan stilled for a moment. He seriously hadn't meant for that to happen. But as the masked Nin lifted his gaze from his meal, fixing him with a withering glare, the albino stared back at him as if it were his fault.

"Well if you hadn't ordered the cheapest bowl of shit on the menu, I wouldn't have done that," he defended.

"I wouldn't, had I known your constitution couldn't handle  _any_  type of vegetable whatsoever," Kakuzu sniped back, noting Hidan's abhorrence of anything good for him, "I'd have gotten you something more fitting," he narrowed his gaze, "like a bowl of shit."

Hezā snorted.

Hidan's scowl deepened, "Bastard." But the insult just washed over the man, so he directed his attention to the blonde still trying to compose herself beside him, "And you. You're not very  _ladylike_  are you?"

Taken back by his sudden attack, Hezā almost choked on her rice in anger. "Who the Hell said I want to be?" she asked loudly, causing a few people to turn their heads toward their table, and earning herself a warning stare from Kakuzu. Now she wished she'd sat next to him instead of this idiot.

"Che!" Hidan dashed his head to the side and muttered a string of curses as he not so delicately picked his way through his meal.

And that was lunch.

* * *

**2**

No one moved for a few heavy seconds.

"I thought this was a hotel." said Hidan. He looked terribly unimpressed as the three of them stood in the doorway to the room they'd be sharing… it was a shit tip.

Kakuzu was the first to venture further inside, claiming the bed closest to the window, below which a small couch was sat. Hidan clicked his tongue and shook his head as he brushed past the blonde who stared at the crap coloured carpet and stained walls.

' _I feel dirty just looking at it,'_  she thought and frowned around before noting that both beds were now taken. She sighed and, meandering over to the wardrobe, she opened the doors and grabbed the spare blankets and pillow, stuffing them onto the couch before slouching off to the bathroom.

"Goin' for a shower," she called, closing the door behind her.

The room was small and compact and smelt of mould and cheap detergent. She twitched her lips as she glanced around, noting the complimentary cleaning products standing on the side of the bathtub. She eyed the sudsy soap bar in particular,  _'Damn thing better not have pubes on it…'_  Judging by the state of the rest of the Hotel, she wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Sighing, she quickly undressed as she recalled the look on the receptionists face when the three of them had first walked in. The timid brunette girl behind the desk, no older than Hezā herself, looked scared out of her wits at the sight of Kakuzu. With a stutter in her voice, she'd blushed brightly when the man had only asked for one room for all three of them. To be honest, it did sound incredibly suspicious, and when the girl had timorously made eye contact with Hezā, the blonde had simply offered up an amused smirk.

She couldn't really blame her though, she too would have found it rather peculiar, and would've been incredibly high strung had she not already spent the night in one room before with both Kakuzu and Reiji. She figured it was just another way for the Falls Nin to save his precious money – and she was right. Hidan, of course, had immediately caused uproar once he heard Kakuzu say 'one room', but begrudgingly let it go when he realised it would be a twin bed set up. Hezā smiled a little at the memory as she stepped into the cascading water.

But what came as an almighty surprise to both Hezā and Hidan, was that Kakuzu had actually ordered room service. Albeit he took the cheapest option for all of them, not consulting his two counterparts, but he'd forked out for it none the less. Hezā ran her hand through her hair and frowned as a couple of hairs remained wrapped around her fingers. She hated it when this happened and used the water to stick the hairs to the tiled wall beside her.

She hung her head with a contented sigh, relaxing into the warmth.

…

_A young girl with short, greasy blonde hair crawled out from the fallen bin she'd been rummaging in. Her hands were empty; there was nothing edible in there. She sighed, looking around for a bin she hadn't rifled through yet. She pushed herself onto her tiptoes to try and see into a dumpster, when a click came from behind her. A door swung open and she turned only to jump out of her skin at the sight of an elderly woman with a broom in her hands._

" _Get outa' here!" the old bat screeched, brandishing the brush, "Go on! Get!"_  


_The blonde skipped haphazardly out of the way of the sweeper as it swooped for her. Almost losing her footing, the child ran from the alley, her bare feet slapping the stony ground as the old woman's curses grew fainter. Sprinting to the end of the wide street, she skidded around a corner and slammed her back into the rough white wall of a shack on the very border of the small hamlet. Out ahead of her was nothing but dusty wilderness dotted with scrub._

_The girl managed to slow her breathing and blinked her ice blue eyes back to a normal size. Her lungs burned from the sudden use and she slid down the wall, curling in on herself when the painful twisting of hunger rumbled through her. She whimpered and hugged her knees._

" _What is it, child?"_  


_She started at the smooth voice. Looking up she found herself in the shadow of a man with deathly pale skin and golden irises. He wore a cream, purple lined robe, violet bruises tracing his eyes and the slits he had for pupils watched her unwaveringly._

" _I'm… I'm hungry," the girl said as she stood, pressing her hands into her non-existent stomach._  


_A smirk appeared on his long face and the girl frowned. He thought it was funny she was starving? But then he reached into a small bag tied to a belt at his hips and pulled out a rice ball wrapped in crisp, thin white paper. He held it out to her and she looked at him for a second, before snatching it from his hand and scoffing it down. He chuckled._

_After shoving the majority of the delicacy down her throat, the girl stopped and watched him. "Wh-Who are you anyway?" she asked, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. And how the Hell had he just appeared in front of her? There was no one there a second ago._

_He smiled, and a little voice inside her head said there was something wrong about that smile, but she brushed it off._

" _My name is Orochimaru and I'm here to save you."_  


…

The sound of the door opening broke Hezā from her memory and she stared at the tiles absently as the water cascaded down around her. Then she realised  _who_  she was with,  _where_  she was and exactly how much she  _wasn't_  wearing. She froze, her heart thumping, then carefully peeked past the gap between the curtain and the wall.

"Hidan!"

"Oh, what now?" he asked, fed up. He turned his head to look at her from his position at the toilet, violet eyes flashing.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Having a piss! What does it look like?"

Fortunately, Hezā couldn't see past his hips, thanks to the sink that stood conveniently in the way, but of course, she already knew what he was doing, " _Why_?"

Hidan made an exasperated gesture, "Because I need one! Are you thick?" he asked genuinely, finishing up and flushing.

"Are you? If you haven't noticed, I'm in the  _shower_!"

"Who gives a flying fuck? I can't see you!" he retorted, waving a hand at the shower curtain. "For the love of Jashin!" the man sighed, throwing his hands up before turning for the door, "Can't even take a Goddamn piss… stupid pain the… my fucking limit…" he grumbled as he exited the room and slammed the door behind him, making the light fitting shudder.

Hezā frowned, "… What's a Jashin?"

* * *

**3**

Blinking at the sharp slam of the door, Kakuzu looked up to watch his new partner stalk over to his bed. At the rate the man was going, it wouldn't just be the miser who wanted his guts strewn for a ten meter radius.

"Stupid brat better not take long," Hidan muttered, throwing himself onto his bed.

Kakuzu didn't say anything and instead continued to read his book. It didn't matter to him what either of his companions' problems were, so long as they didn't kill each other, he had no reason to get involved… unless, of course, they made the mistake of pissing  _him_  off.

After ten minutes Hezā reappeared from the shower dressed in a long plain shirt and baggy shorts.

"It's about time," Hidan said, getting up and pushing past the girl. She kept her balance amazingly well for someone with only one arm and made a face, silently mock miming what he'd said as she fiercely rubbed a towel over her hair. Giving her head one last rub, Hezā hung the towel on the radiator and mimicked Hidan's earlier movements, throwing herself onto his bed and making the most of his absence. Besides, Kakuzu would most likely embroider her ass to her head if she tried to sit on his with him.

"HEZĀ!"

The girl jumped and sat up.

"Why are there pubic hairs on the  _wall_?" the bathroom door swung open and Hidan emerged wearing nothing but a damp towel. "Well?"

Hezā stared at him for a second. Quickly, she pushed herself from the bed and made her way into the bathroom, scrutinising the wall the man was pointing at. "Hidan, that's not pubic hair, that's my hair. As in  _head_  hair." she pointed at her skull. "Honestly, who has pubic hair  _that long_?"

"What's it doing on the wall?"

"… My hair malts and I can't get it off my hand?" she was hesitant, wondering if he'd understand the woes of long hair.

He didn't look enlightened. "Well don't do it again! It looks disgusting."

"You look disgusting," the girl muttered childishly after she left the room and Hidan had closed the door. She jumped and landed in a roll on the bed. "What're you reading?" she asked Kakuzu, not really expecting an answer but deciding to at least try to form a better relationship between herself and her superior.

The man didn't respond. So much for that plan. She sighed and sat up, deciding to de-knot her hair before it dried.

Twenty minutes passed by, neither ninja making conversation, but both seeming to be content with the silence between them. The only sound was the shower and the occasional papery flip of pages from Kakuzu. It seemed for the first time since they'd been put together, the three of them were at some form of peace.

Hezā was laid out on her side, her eyes closed. The day's travel had caught up with her faster than she'd expected and she drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to fully go under knowing that Hidan would kick her off his bed soon.

Coming to the end of the current chapter, Kakuzu tilted his head back, letting his eyes rest from staring at the pages for so long. He blinked a few times before casting a glance at the young girl. Her damp blonde hair looked bedraggled and flicked out at odd angles, and with all the water still held in it, she appeared brunette. She had hawk-like, angled features; her nose was pointed and had a slight bump in it, either from one too many fights or just simple clumsiness. Her face wasn't long, more oval shaped, with a slightly pronounced jaw that gently slanted into a rounded point at her chin. From what he could see, she had scabs on her knuckles, and her eyebrows were straight and set into a natural frown, much like himself and Hidan.

She'd certainly changed; last time he'd seen her she'd been fourteen and her face had still held the roundness of youth, fresh and plump. But after he'd left with a newly appointed partner for an eight month funding mission, he'd returned to find both Orochimaru and the two girls gone. It was then that he'd found out what exactly had transpired while he'd been away.

Hezā's eyes flicked open at the sound of the shower being switched off. She gave a yawn and reached her arm out in front of her, clenching and tensing the fingers into a claw as she stretched, feeling blood rush around her limb. But timely ruining the calm atmosphere, the bathroom door suddenly swung open as Hidan appeared in a puff of steam... and he was as butt-naked as a cherub.

"Fuck!" Hezā jolted in surprise and fell backwards off the bed.

Hidan frowned. "Prude," he muttered, stepping over to the foot of his bed.

"Collars match the cuffs, then," Kakuzu stated dryly and returned to his book, easily avoiding the sour look Hidan shot him.

"Ungh," Hezā held her head from where it had hit the floor and opened her eyes only to catch another eyeful of her superior's privates. She quickly shut them again, hating the deep blush that burned through her cheeks. She'd never seen a naked man before. She wasn't comfortable with it in the slightest and it showed, no matter how much she tried to hide it. "I-I'm not a prude," she managed, her voice sounding soft and weak. "I just don't appr-ppreciate... that..."

Hidan scoffed, "Well suck it up; there aren't any dry towels."

Hezā kept her eyes shut, a hot scowl on her flushed face, but she opened them at a meek knocking at the door. Hidan turned and strode over to open it, Kakuzu and Hezā watching.

"R-room serv-EEE!" the girl at the door squeaked as soon as she caught sight of Hidan's gonads, her pale cheeks burning a juicy tomato. It was the same, timid brunette from reception, and she couldn't seem to remove her gaze from the Jashinist's area for a good few seconds, before she clapped her hands to her eyes and bowed repeatedly. "Gomen'nasai! Gomen'nasai! Gomen'nasai! Gomen'nasai!"

Kakuzu watched with mild interest and Hezā fought a smile. While the girl was distracted, Hidan grabbed the trolley of food and pulled it swiftly into the room.

"Gomen'nasai! Gomen'nasai! Gomen'na–" the door slammed in her blushing face and Hidan dragged the trolley over to stand between both his and Kakuzu's beds.

"You forgot to pay her," Hezā said from the floor, Kakuzu making a mental note to expect it to be added to their bill when they left in the morning.

Hidan just gave her a smug grin, "I think seeing these babies was enough," he gestured.

"Enough to scar her for a lifetime," Kakuzu commented and the blonde chuckled. But startling both Hezā and Hidan, the tanned man's arm suddenly detached itself at the scar just below his elbow, black tentacles connecting and stretching from the rest of the limb, and grabbed his tray of food from the trolley. They stared at him as though he'd just sprouted feathers.

"Well shit. I didn't know you could do that," Hidan said.

Hezā laughed nervously, "Yeah, me neither."

"Anything else you'd care to share?"

"No," Kakuzu snapped, pulling his mask down and picking up his bowl of Miso soup.

Hidan gave a 'humph' as Hezā got up and crawled across his bed to fetch her food. She dragged it backwards with her as she shimmied across the mattress, stopping close to the edge and sitting cross-legged. Hidan watched her, trying to decide if he could be arsed to chase her off his bed, when something dark and cloth-like landed on his head. Snapping a hand up to snatch the material, the hot-headed Shinobi glared at his partner.

"Put some clothes on. I don't appreciate your dick in my face when I'm trying to eat."

"Oh fuck you! I don't take orders from a creepy bastard who needs thread to keep himself together–"

What happened next did so in the space of a second. The wall behind Hidan's skull exploded, leaving behind a cavity that was filled with Kakuzu's blackened knuckles. Hidan had tilted his head just out of range of the attack and he smirked at his enraged partner who glared back. There were only centimetres between them as Hezā watched, her muscles tense and ready to move if things got ugly. Then she remembered Hidan was still naked and was officially disturbed, her dying blush returning.

"Goddamn. You're an easy one to wind up, aren't 'cha?" the albino grinned. To be fair, all three of them were easy to wind up. It was just that when Kakuzu lost it, there tended to be a cubic shit load of collateral damage.

The ex-waterfall Shinobi glowered at him, before wrenching his fist from the wall as it returned to its tanned shade. Bits of cement fell to the floor as he backed away and over to his bed.

"What? No fight?" Hidan sounded genuinely disappointed, but Hezā couldn't mistake the sinister undertone lurking in his voice.

"Not. Here." Kakuzu took a seat on his bed and returned to his meal.

Nothing was said for the rest of the night.

* * *

**4**

For three long days the trio travelled by foot across the wide plateaus of the grass country.

The unwilling companions had traded everything from sour looks and jibes, to low blow comments and kunai knives. But yet had anyone completely lost it, which was surprising given Kakuzu's violent temper tantrums, and Hidan's inane disability to accept anything other than the word of Jashin as something to believe in.

The only thing that had been keeping them from scratching each other's eyes out was the stone cold fact that they were supposedly a  _team_  and they had a mission to complete. Until just three minutes ago, Hezā had managed to keep herself out of trouble, knowing that annoying either one of them could grant her a one way ticket to a casket six feet under – or the bottom of a dumpster, knowing these guys. But trying to pry into her past and then slipping in a snide comment about how she was a pussy for losing an arm had sent her over the edge.

One terse look, followed by a smile that didn't bode well for her from Hidan, and they attacked each other instantly.

* * *

Gomen'nasai =  _I'm sorry_


	7. Chapter 7

_Disputes, Deceit and Artsy-fartsy Banter_

**1**

Dancing backwards, Hezā arched herself away from the triple-bladed scythe as it missed her ribs by millimetres. Hidan let out a holler, leaping forwards and using his weapon's momentum to swing it behind him, bringing it over his head and down in a powerful arch. It bit into the ground where his opponent's foot had been a second before.

Hidan was toying with her. He knew that if he didn't kill her he'd have to ask forgiveness of Jashin later; it was a sin to leave a survivor. You either kill your opponent, or don't enter battle at all. But right now, he didn't give a shit. He hadn't really cared if it was Teacloth or Blondie who snapped first, he just wanted to fight. He needed to let out some of that pent up energy – simply walking around all day was doing nothing for him. But the only reason it wasn't Kakuzu engaged in battle right now, was because he was actually making an effort  _not_  to rip Hidan's throat out. He stood a good few feet away looking bored out of his box. His green eyes watching the fight like it was a crap theatre production.

"Don't kill her," he called and observed as his partner swung at and missed his target, over and over… but it was almost like he was  _meaning_  to.

Hidan smirked, "Oh don't worry, I won't kill her."

Hezā wasn't fast, and this Hidan knew. In her right hand a fold away bottle opener-come-penknife was clasped in a tight grip, the blade folded out and protruding from the base of her fist. She was trying desperately to figure out how she could use her Kekkei Genkai on this guy, without getting herself hacked in half.

The scythe swept in an arc again, then Hidan utilised some extra strength and forced it to reverse its path, the thick, cubic butts along the shaft rushed back towards the blonde. Eyes wide and pulse a-pumping, Hezā twisted away, but still felt pain burn through her skull as she was clipped upside the head.

She stumbled backwards, landing on her back, sight blurry and lungs winded. But her body was sucking adrenaline through her veins, and she reacted. Faster than she thought she could, she swung her feet up, heaving herself backwards to just barely roll out of the way of Hidan's scythe as it sunk its crimson teeth into the soil.

The Jashinist scowled; surprised she'd been able to move that fast given the blow he'd just dealt her. Turned out this kid wasn't a  _total_  waste.

Hezā wobbled to a stand and stumbled again. Seizing his chance, Hidan brought his weapon round in a full arc once more, a cruel cackle crackling through the air after it. Hezā flashed her knife up to defend, but her unbalanced stance betrayed her. Her weapon, an ant compared to the goliath it faced, slipped between the crimson blades and clashed against the base. The scythe's weight and momentum overpowered her and she staggered back. The knife was torn from her grip.

Hidan let out another loud whoop, rotating the blades to face his target and whipped the weapon forwards, extending the chord as he did. Hezā caught sight of his little adjustment and her heart nearly stopped. She tried desperately to lean back and out of the way, but no dice. The tip of the furthest blade carved a shallow trench into her right jaw and she gasped, her head flinching away.

Hidan grinned, digging his heels into the soil and skidding to a stop. A cloud of dust was scuffed up as Hezā fell back onto her side and rolled to a halt. The Jashinist chuckled and, slowly, he dragged his tongue across the cold surface of his blade, carelessly letting the steel bite into the soft muscle as he licked off her blood.

Through the splitting headache, Hezā could only watch in confusion. She hadn't believed it possible to put her Kekkei Genkai into effect that easily, but here he was,  _willingly_  swallowing her blood. She gulped, then froze when she noticed something strange. Through the settling dust Hezā squinted, wondering if her eyesight was really that bad that she was seeing things. Hidan stood with a huge grin spread on his face, as his body began to change colour. Bone white markings flared brash against ashen black skin, and the girl likened him to the Shinigami she'd heard about in folklore.

With a thin line of blood dribbling down his chin, Hidan hacked his weapon into the ground and took a short, metal pole from his cloak. Hezā flinched when it snapped out to its full, sharp length and gasped when he stabbed his right hand without hesitation. Hidan groaned in pain, before smiling and squeezing his palm, letting liquid red drip down to stain the soil at his feet.

' _What is he doing?'_  Hezā almost couldn't believe her eyes,  _'I had a feeling he was a little crazy, but this is something else.'_

"Keh. Not so tough now, are ya?" Hidan laughed and began to drag his foot around him in a circle, drawing his pendants symbol on the ground below.

Hezā cringed as she pushed herself to a stand. She closed her eyes and held her hand aloft, index and middle fingers pointing up to the sky.

Hidan scowled at her, what was she doing? "Che. Meditate on this, bitch," he murmured and grabbed his pike with both hands, aiming it just left of his stomach. He grinned, his eyes anticipating the agony to come.

But as he was about to move, he froze. His muscles betrayed him as a searing heat suddenly swilled through his torso. What the fuck was  _that_?

Hidan grunted and he tensed at the pain, his normally angelic features twisting into a snarl. He dropped the pike and it clattered to the ground. At the sound, Hezā opened her eyes and smiled; her Kekkei Genkai had worked.

"What… what is this?" he hissed, leaning forwards, his jaw clenched. He gripped his stomach as the pain intensified, corkscrewing through his body and reacting to every little movement he made, "What is this shit?"

Hidan was a man of masochistic love, but only when he could embrace that pain and share it with another. That's what made it so sweet, the pure fact that his opponent was dying from the injuries inflicted, while he wasn't. It was a spiteful act, but that was Hidan all over. Now this,  _this_  was different. Now it was  _his opponent_  hurting  _him_ , not the way it normally went down. And it pissed him off.

"What the Hell have you done?" he demanded.

Hezā released her tiger sign. "It's called the Ketsudoku Jōto, or Blood Poison Transferral technique; my Kekkei Genkai," she said, walking toward him. Kakuzu, too, moved closer, deciding to find out just what was happening. One minute Hidan looked about ready to spear himself, the next, he's hunched over like some old lady. "My blood and saliva are naturally mixed with my chakra to give them venomous qualities, a bit like a poisonous frog or something," she said, "The strain I gave you should cause intense pain followed by partial paralysis."

"Bitch," Hidan growled, falling to his knees as the paralysis began to take effect.

Kakuzu watched his partner, before glancing at Hezā. He recalled she'd had a Kekkei Genkai back from when she was a kid, but he'd not known what it was exactly, or what clan it descended from, if it came from one at all.

The breeze cooled the girl as she finally regained her breath. Then she froze as an agonising pain exploded in her stomach. It flooded her veins, burning as it progressed through her body. She cried out and sank to her knees, Kakuzu quickly glancing over and Hidan scowling up at her with the little self control he had left. She clutched her torso briefly, before snapping her arm out to catch herself as she fell forward. She whimpered, eyes screwed shut and mouth set in a grimace. She collapsed onto her forearm and curled into the ground.

' _But how…?'_

"Keh!" Hidan barked, glad he was still able to talk, "When Jashin-sama granted me immortality, it gave me the perfect opportunity to use it against fools like you! By ingesting your blood, I can force you to feel all the pain in the world; the torture inflicted on me resonates through the two of us – until you die!" he laughed manically, uncontrollably, and had Hezā not been concentrating so hard on the agony, she would've been deeply disturbed.

"H-He's immortal…?" the girl rasped, unable to consider it. She cracked her eyes open to see the blurry ground through watery eyes. Through all the talking he'd done since she'd met him, he'd managed to leave  _that_  part out. Even so, she couldn't bring herself to believe it anyway; this guy was a loon. Of that, she was certain.

She clenched her fist, testing how far the paralysis had progressed.  _'But… I'm immune; it's_ my _blood, how can it– Wait. The poison isn't_ physically _in my body – it's in his. So really, I'm just getting the effects of it, without it actually being in me… and if what he says is true, his jutsu relays his pain to the opponent, then that means, pain-wise, my immunity counts for nothing…'_  she blinked. Shit.

Kakuzu sighed heavily and shot out his right arm, loose inky tentacles writhing in the light, his hand meeting with the collar of his partner. He gripped it and dragged Hidan out of his little voo-doo doodle. "I presume you need to be inside that thing in order to perform your jutsu," the Falls Nin deduced, noting Hezā's gasp of relief once the albino was hauled from the red circle. But she wasn't getting off that easy – she'd barely taken a grateful breath when his large left hand clamped around her throat and effortlessly lugged her body to his feet beside Hidan's partially paralysed one.

Then – faster than either of them could anticipate – Kakuzu bashed their heads together. A hiss of pain from Hezā and torrent of swears from Hidan were what met his ears. But he couldn't give a rat's ass. "Thanks to your stupid little spat, you've wasted a large amount of  _my valuable time_ ," he growled, and Hezā tried to make herself as small as possible in fear of him attempting to merge her head with Hidan's again. Then the albino was pulled higher so Kakuzu could stare him in the eye. "We need her  _alive_ , idiot."

"Alright, alright, don't have a conniption, old man!"

Hezā pursed her lips… then Hidan's face was smashed into the ground.

* * *

**2**

The sun had risen to its highest point in the sky and had begun its descent by the time the three partners were anywhere near the village they were aiming for. It turned out Hezā's poison took over twenty-four hours to nullify. But seeing as he'd ingested such a small amount and, thanks to his inhumanly fast healing capabilities, Hidan was moving relatively normally after just three hours of being dragged along the road by Kakuzu.

Feeling a little pity for the man and the sorry state he'd been in, Hezā had walked along just behind them as they travelled and asked him questions about his religion – something she found quite interesting, if a bit extreme. After getting both their skulls bashed together, neither of the two Shinobi were in Kakuzu's good books – if he even had any – and so currently shared a mutual, if slightly juvenile, dislike for the man as he unrelentingly marched onward.

As he'd talked, Hidan had slowly lightened up until he seemed to be his rightful self again, that is to say, a generally grumpy, selfish man with a slightly childish attitude and a short, homicidal temper. But now he was up and walking again, the convocation between them had dwindled to nothing and the three companions travelled in silence once more.

Sweeping her gaze up from the ground after counting rocks up to as high as she could count for over half an hour – which wasn't very high at all – Hezā noticed something up in the distance. Ailed with short sight, the girl couldn't make out what exactly it was until they drew closer. She squinted and deciphered it to be a wooden, fold-up board with writing on it.

"Kakuzu-san," she started, glancing at him where he walked just ahead of her. The man made no noise or movement to say he'd heard her, "What's that?"

Hidan followed her finger as she pointed and scoffed, "You don't know what a sign is?" he mocked.

"It's a board saying there's an annual art exhibition in the town ahead," Kakuzu answered in monotone. The nonstop walking had numbed his mind into an almost robotic state. And sure enough, in the distance, the thick red posts marking the entrance of a village appeared. The village they'd been aiming for, Toru Nara.

Hezā perked up, "Oh? Might check it out," she said, smiling for the first time since Hidan had his head bashed in by Kakuzu hours earlier. She glanced up at the albino, scrutinising his forehead. The blood was gone and there was no sign of any injury ever being there now. She frowned and would've questioned this if it weren't for his current crotchety mood, "I heard about an artist who did an exhibition in the Rock country somewhere. I can't remember his name, but for his main piece he masturbated under the floor boards as people walked over him," Hidan shot a disgusted look at her, "It was called Seedbed. He did it eight hours a day for three weeks and he called out his sexual fantasies to the people in the gallery."

"Why are you telling us this?" the albino asked.

Hezā shrugged nonchalantly, "Just sharing some culture."

"Che! That's not culture, that's just sick," he snubbed.

Hezā rolled her eyes. He obviously didn't get it. "He was exploring the boundaries between what is socially acceptable and what is not, and he was performing both in public and private at the same time. The people didn't know he was actually under the floor boards, they thought it was only being played through the speakers or something.  _But_ ," she looked at him, "if they had  _known_  he was there, they would've freaked. You'd be more grossed out if you saw someone masturbating, than just hearing them," she explained, before shrugging, "People can read porn all they like, but no matter what they say or how they react, if they saw it happening in front of them, they'd be disturbed… well, unless they're downright pervs." Kakuzu glanced at her over his shoulder and Hidan was still fixing her with a look of disgust. She sighed, "Honestly, you two are useless at this. Sasori-san would understand."

"Yeah? Well next time you see that gay-boy splinter-freak you can have a wonderful time licking his ass. But until then, shut the fuck up!" Hidan growled and Hezā stuck her tongue out at him when he looked away.

The three of them approached the bustling village and passed beneath the red entryway of Toru Nara, finding themselves at the beginning of a large market. The street was wide, with stalls on both sides and a line of them running straight down the middle. Hezā let her gaze wander over the merchandise and food that was on display, nothing in particular catching her eye, which was good seeing as she didn't have any money to buy anything any way.

As they moved through the crowd they received odd looks and evoked whispers, but ignored them all; the Akatsuki cloak wasn't exactly subtle. The midday sun reached into the crevices of the streets and bleached the dusty flagstones between the low-rise buildings. The trio stopped at a busy cross-road with a large statue of a stone Buddha sat in the middle. Hidan scowled at it and muttered about blasphemy and heathens, before turning his attention to Kakuzu and following him as he approached an information shack.

"You two busy yourselves while I find this informant. And  _don't_  start trouble," the man instructed as he plucked a map of the village from the wooden stand, "We're keeping a  _low profile_."

The man behind the counter of the information point raised his eyebrows and offered Kakuzu a wide grin, "Can I help you at all, sir?"

"No," the miser shot him down with a menacing glare before he could go any further, and proceeded to meander over to the shaded entrance of a secluded alley.

"Why are you going alone?" Hezā asked as she watched him unfold the map and scrutinise it.

"If I do find this so called informant, it'll be far less suspicious if it's only me," he replied, not looking up.

"Fair enough," she looked out at the people passing by, "I'll go to the exhibition," she glanced over at Hidan who was scowling at the villagers, the sun bleaching his hair even whiter and making his eyes appear a dusty rose, "Hidan, you want to come?"

He glowered down at her from his leaning position on the wall, "What's there?"

Hezā glanced off to the side, tempted to point out the fact she wouldn't have clue seeing as she hadn't been there yet, then looked back at him, "Its art."

"I'd rather eat my own dick."

"Whatever floats your boat."

Kakuzu scratched a tiny cross into the map with his fingernail to mark his destination and turned to his two companions, "Meet back here in one hour."

* * *

**3**

_Hidan glanced over his shoulder to watch a rotund man perform a series of strange bodily positions while perched on a small stool across the bar. Apparently it was part of an art performance, but he didn't see it that way. He scoffed and shook his head as he turned back around to glare at the tarnished wooden table top. He was currently sat at the edge of a four seat booth in the corner of a tavern with Hezā opposite him. She was regarding the strange performance with a lazily interested look in her eyes, her head resting in her palm, elbow planted on the table. The two of them were waiting for Kakuzu to get back; he'd disappeared through the door at the very back of the room saying something about a bounty. But after fifteen minutes he'd yet to return._

" _This place sticks of weed," Hidan muttered, looking off to the side in disgust while Hezā responded with an airy 'hmm'. He sighed before remembering the whole reason they were in this town in the first place. They had to find information about some prick named Orochimaru. "So who's this guy we're meant find anyway?" he asked, claiming the girl's attention._

_Hezā flicked her gaze to his and explained, "He's my former master and an ex-member of Akatsuki."_

" _He left?"_

" _Mm," Hezā drew in a deep breath, "Apparently he attacked another member," she said, "Some guy called Uchiha, I think… He's very powerful and is one of the three legendary Sannin of Konohagakure. But he was chased out of his village a few years before he joined Akatsuki."_

_Hidan just scoffed, before whipping his head round at a sharp yell as the fat man fell from the stool he'd been trying to balance on. He looked on in disbelief, "What do people see in that rubbish?"_

_Hezā glanced back at him, her head still resting in her hand, "What do you perceive as art then?"_

_He seemed a little hesitant, pulling at his cloak with an annoyed scowl, before he answered, "You know, paintings and stuff. Not that spastic crap."_

_She just watched him listlessly, almost hopelessly, "How very Avant-garde of you." Hidan just scowled at her. "You do realise it's often the_ _**meaning** _ _behind a piece that makes it art, right?" the man fixed her with a blank look, not buying it. She held back a sigh, "Goin' for a wee-wee."_

_Hidan looked indignant, "You don't have to tell me," he said as she got up and wandered off._

_The albino was left alone for a total of ten seconds before he was set upon by a stranger. An old man, sat in the booth behind theirs, leaned out and around, coughing a little, "Ey… ey young 'un," Hidan frowned as he turned to acknowledge the disturbance. It had been a while since he'd been called 'young un', "You wan' Orochimaru?"_

_He blinked, almost not believing his luck and nodded, "Yeah, we need information."_

_The old man chuckled, coughing as he did so, making Hidan recoil away from him with a scowl, "Well, there be a lil' trinket shop up in Toru Nara, just North of 'ere," he wheezed, "Place is call' Daisuke's, you can get all the information you wan'!" he said, laughing a little, "Jus' tell 'em, ol' man Enka sent yuh. But be discreet 'bout it."_

_Hidan blinked a few times, his eyebrows raising a little. "Yeah, yeah, thanks Gramps," he said and the old man nodded before getting up and shuffling off._

_Hidan watched him go, before snapping his head round as Hezā fell back into the seat opposite him loudly, a lopsided smile on her face. Kakuzu had now made an appearance and stood beside her, looking out at the bar._

" _Hey, I know where we can find information on this Oro-guy," the albino claimed with a smug grin._

…

And that's why they were here.

Hidan kept his gaze mostly on the ground seeing as every time he looked up he was filled with an overwhelming need to kill something. Why were there so many people in one place? Why can't they just fuck off somewhere else? It would make his life a hell of a lot easier.

He grumbled as he pushed his way past a fat woman who was too busy haggling to give a damn. All these pathetic, lowlife heathens were mere obstacles in the way of Jashin's great plan, and it was his job, along with every other Jashinist out there, to kill all those who were not of the religion, or who were too stubborn and stupid to convert. That was when the rise of a new world could begin. Yes, that was the ultimate goal.

… Still. He had to get away from this shit. The mouth of a narrow alley caught his eye and he quickly made his way over to it, muttering curses as he did.

* * *

**4**

Kakuzu frowned down at the map, before looking up at the broken sign spelling 'Da suk'.

He stood before the shop, inside which Hidan had said he could get information about Orochimaru, and he wasn't impressed; it was grimy, dust encrusted and generally gave the impression he'd contract lung disease if he ventured inside. It was situated on a deserted winding back street, small shops on one side, a long wooden fence on the other, most of the other stores surrounding it being abandoned with broken windows – one even looked burnt out. His brow furrowed deeper; he didn't like the look of it, but this must be the place. He was a good navigator, having the whole of his long life to practise, so he was sure he hadn't gone wrong anywhere. Giving a small sigh he stepped forward and pushed open the door, hearing the delicate chime of a bell at his entrance.

Startled by the sound, the young bald man leaning against the faded mint green counter straightened up, revealing a skinny form beneath bland, baggy clothes. He seemed a little jumpy and cautious – not so much nervous, but alert. He watched Kakuzu closely with deep brown eyes from beneath thick, black eye brows – almost suspiciously. The miser took one glance around the shop before heading over to him.

He lifted his head, "Is there anything I can, uh… 'elp you with?" his voice was rough and husky.

"Old man Enka sent me," Kakuzu replied, telling the man exactly what Hidan had told him. If that photogenic psychopath was right, he should have just given this young man the go ahead to tell him everything he knew on Orochimaru. Of course, Kakuzu had planned ahead and had with him a stash of money ready for bribing. Though he loved his greens, he also knew others did to, and sometimes, when in need of a smooth transaction, you needed a little lubrication.

The young man nodded, shooting a quick look to the entrance of the shop, before beckoning Kakuzu to follow him over to a wooden panel door. He slid it open, revealing a dark stairway.

He brought a hand to his mouth as he yelled, "Genji-san! There's a man 'ere says he knows Enka!"

Sounds of people moving and a soft murmuring of voices drifted up the stairway before they received an answer, "Send 'im down!"

The bald man stepped aside and held out an arm, gesturing for Kakuzu to go through. The Falls Nin gave the young man a short look, his guard on high alert as he walked through the panel door.

A terribly pungent scent caught in his nose, but Kakuzu couldn't quite place it as he walked down, it smelt like many different things he'd smelled before in his long life, but all mixed together into one, and growing stronger the deeper he went. The steps creaked beneath his weight as he descended them, the need for light becoming increasingly dire. But once he reached what he assumed to be the bottom, he found himself in a cube of a room with a large gas lamp sat on a square table in the middle. Cabinets and bookcases bordered the chamber, covered with ripped and stained scrolls while a few empty bottles stood idly on most surfaces.

The door at the top of the stairs slid shut with a 'clack' and Kakuzu was left facing two men. One was shorter and fatter than the other, and was perched on the table. He had sleep-deprived eyes, the beginnings of a moustache and goatee and he, too, was bald. The other man stood beside him, his arms folded and a natural scowl in place. In the dim light Kakuzu distinguished a long face, riddled with stubble and a short, livid scar searing the skin of his cheek.

The shorter, fatter man, who Kakuzu assumed to be Genji smiled at him, "So, you know Enka, huh?"

"Not really. But he told me I could find information on Orochimaru here."

The man's face lit up, "Ah, you wan' Orochimaru, eh?"

Kakuzu bowed his head a little, grunting as he made his way over to the table the man was sat on. Genji slipped off the surface and walked round to pull out a chair opposite him. Kakuzu carefully took out a small, fat pouch from his cloak and dropped it onto the desk between them. It hit the wood with a metal 'chink' telling of the coins inside.

Genji blinked down at the little bag with a smile before looking back up at his customer. He chuckled, his cohort joining him, "I'm afraid it's going to cost more than that, my friend." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and withdrew another pouch from his cloak, setting it beside the other. Genji's smile grew.

"Tell me everything you know about Orochimaru."

* * *

**5**

Moving through the stagnant crowd, Hezā worked her way toward the easels she could just barely see over the tops of people's heads. It sucked being short sometimes.

She sighed as she broke through the last barrier of bodies and turned her attention to the paintings surrounding a central fountain. Several chairs were placed around for the artists themselves to sit on, but they were currently absent.

She tilted her head, staring at the painting before her; it was a canvas thickly coated with mottled colour, splattered over it willy-nilly. So this artist was an abstract expressionist then? She smiled. She liked art like this – or more over, she liked to  _create_  art like this. Letting her subconscious mind guide her, drawing out her inner emotions, whatever they might be, and allowing pure luck to play a hand in where the paint would fall was something she enjoyed, but she wasn't sure why. She guessed it was probably more the concept behind such art, rather than the finished piece itself.

She idly wandered through the forest of easels, noting most of the paintings were of the same style and movement, when she caught sight of a man walking towards her with a tray of substance filled wine glasses balanced on his hand. She narrowed her eyes. He took no notice of her as he quickly walked by, but using the swift and precise movements only a ninja could posses, Hezā rocked up onto her tiptoes, reached her hand up and hooked her fingers beneath a glass, lifting it smoothly from the tray without the man noticing as he passed her. She smirked, bringing it to her lips, hoping it was alcohol. And would you believe it, it was.

She sighed; she hadn't had anything alcoholic in a while, often not having the money to buy it. She moved on to the next painting in line and cocked her head. A simply painted, blurry blue cow ran through a myriad of horizontal black lines on the small square canvas and she frowned, looking for a caption to go with the piece. As she searched someone came up behind her, a smug look about them. She sensed him before he clapped his manicured hand on her shoulder and she scowled at the friendly contact.

"Good isn't it?" his suave voice reached her ears. She turned to see a well dressed man with a slight moustache and slicked back black hair that was receding, revealing a pronounced widows peak. His eyes held a gleam of arrogance and she frowned. He leaned in a little, Hezā reining her head away subtly. "… It's mine you know," he pulled his head back with a self-satisfied grin and removed his hand from her shoulder much to her relief. She didn't want to cause a scene after Kakuzu had told her specifically not to get into any trouble. Not only that, but his fat hand had been sat far too close for comfort to her metal plating. She didn't like people even  _knowing_  about that.

She shook off her first impressions in favour of an intelligent convocation. So this guy was the artist? An interested glint appeared in her eyes as Hezā turned to face him, "Oh yeah?"

"Mm!" he nodded, smiling before gesturing to the easels surrounding the area, "All this is my work."

"Cool," Hezā nodded, "It's very good," she took a sip of her drink. The man before her seemed about to say something but he stopped himself. "Tell me, what was the idea behind this one," she moved her hand still holding the drink over to the blue cow picture she'd been scrutinising.

The man hesitated, "Er, idea?" he asked.

Hezā turned her head, keeping her eyes on his, "Yeah," she said, quickly beginning to doubt this man, "You know; what was the concept? The thinking? The feeling? What does it mean? Why is it blue? Does it stand for something? I could go on forever…" she said, shaking her head and taking another sip of her drink.

"U-Um… Well, I-uh. It's… I was… Um, I was in the country one day and I saw… a cow – It's quite simple!" he chortled, forcing a smile.

"Yeah, just like your mind," Hezā murmured, glancing back at the picture.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said it's a great find," she said. This guy was a complete fake; he was either trying to imitate fine art – which is all about concept, portraying things in different ways and exploring ideas, ways of thinking – or this work  _wasn't_  his. Either way he was just trying to make quick money.

"A-Are you an artist by any chance?" he asked her as she gazed blankly at the painting and Hezā detected a nervousness to his voice.

Like a predator sensing fear in its prey, she swiftly turned her head back to him with a wide 'gotcha' grin on her face, "How did you guess." It wasn't a question. Amusement danced in her eyes and the man was taken aback by her sudden change.

"A-Ah!" he forced another chuckle, pointing at her briefly. " _I thought so!_  It's always nice to meet a fellow artist," there was a bout of awkward silence between them. Hezā just stared at him, her previous grin now gone to leave her face unreadable, "Um, i-is any of your work here?"

The blonde took a deep breath, "Nah, couldn't be arsed this year."

"O-oh… Any particular movement you're involved in?"

Hezā remained silent. She hadn't created any art for a long while; she was left handed and missing her left hand, so it really did suck the biggest balls ever. Deciding that this guy wasn't worth her full attention though, she decided to have some fun, gaining an amused air about her as she thought of Hidan and Kakuzu.

"The Zombism movement," she said. After all, Kakuzu looked like the epitome of 'living dead' and if Hidan was telling the truth about him being immortal, then fair dos.

The man looked confused, "The…  _Zombism_  movement?"

"Yeah, it's the movement that dedicates itself to studying the behaviour of the weirdoes of this world and capturing them in different Medias."

"Really?"

Hezā nodded as she took a sip of her drink, "Mm!"

' _God, can I talk bullshit.'_

* * *

**6(66)**

Chanting the mantra of endless prayers had a calming effect on Hidan, quelling the bubbling irritation caused by humanity in general.

He sat cross-legged against the wall of a dead end alley, between a dumpster and a pile of boxes filled with useless junk. Torn clothes and broken ceramics. The chill wall cooled him through his cloak in the late afternoon heat. His plum eyes were closed in a relaxed state of concentration, brow softly furrowed, hand holding his precious pendant up to his lips as he murmured the sacred words.

His tight Akatsuki cloak was left unzipped as usual, allowing for as much air to reach his skin as possible. He hated being too hot, just like he hated being too cold. And he  _abhorred_  being limited in his movement, which was what this damn cloak was doing. He'd have to get a new one soon; he didn't like the idea of having to fight in this shrunken dress. When he sliced into his opponents he wanted to feel the momentum of his scythe arch powerfully through the air before sinking its curved teeth into flesh without any restrictions. Yes, he definitely had to get a bigger one.

Said weapon was presently positioned upside down beside the albino, the wrapped hilt up in the air and propped against the wall. Everything about it spoke power combined with stealth. Its flexible, metal chord arched from the tip of the handle and coiled down around the red pole, before branching off and slipping into the sleeve of the cloak. It reached behind Hidan and eventually led to a holster on his left hip, allowing its owner to extend the length and width of the weapon's range of attack. A deadly advantage.

The scythe had been a gift to Hidan from his fellow Jashinists, given to him when he had miraculously endured the Immortal Sacrament. He had died, passed through the Eye of Jashin himself and, with the almighty God deeming him worthy, survived. He had been sent back to earth as a true Immortal, to preach the word of Jashin and been acknowledged as a High Priest amongst his fellow worshipers. With that scythe he vowed to bring death to any and every adversary he faced. After all, it was a mortal sin to leave an opponent half dead – or, God forbid, even  _remotely_  alive.

Prayers of thanks, honour and asking of forgiveness passed along Hidan's lips. He hadn't killed Hezā, and he hadn't sacrificed anyone in over a week, he was well overdue.

But his entreaties were interrupted when a chorus of juvenile sniggers echoed from the other end of the alley. Ceasing his mantra, Hidan slowly opened his eyes and, still holding his pendant to his lips, flicked his gaze to see a group of young males stood at the end of the passage. They occasionally looked in his direction, before turning back to their friends, their mouths curved into little smirks, their eyes squashed up in laughter.

Anticipation bubbled in Hidan's chest as one of them started walking toward him. The rest followed and he lowered his pendant, curiosity and excitement hidden behind bored eyes. He resisted a smirk. Oh Hallelujah.

"Hey old man, what's with the walking stick?" the leader asked, making a piss poor effort of containing his grin.

Hidan said nothing. It was like they were being offered up on a motherfucking platter.

"Yeah, tryin'a make up for size elsewhere or somethin'?"

The raucous laughter that followed boiled Hidan's blood and his mouth became a tight line. The albino scoffed loudly, catching the youths' attention, they hadn't actually expected him to retaliate. And now that they were closer, they noticed he wasn't old, he was, in fact, just a few years older than them.

"Interrupt me while I'm praying? You must be suicidal," he growled. There was a twisted smile on his face as he stared up at them, the last of their smirks disappearing at his attitude. Some even got ready to fight; switching from foot to foot and cracking their knuckles, swapping encouraging gazes with each other for support.

Hidan wasn't fazed in the slightest by the insignificant show as he rose to a stand. He slipped off his cloak and unclipped his holster. "I don't need my scythe to mutilate you miserable fuckers."

* * *

**7**

"You want to  _know_  about Orochimaru?"

Genji had a funny expression on his face as he regarded Kakuzu. He glanced at his cohort and they held each other's gaze for a moment before bursting into peals of laughter. Kakuzu scowled, unimpressed. As their short-lived amusement died down, Genji wiped a tear from his eye before signalling something to his right hand man and the subordinate exited the room through a sliding panel door.

"Surely you must know what Orochimaru is, it's what you're here for, right?" Genji asked with the remains of a smile still on his face.

" _What_  Orochimaru is?" Kakuzu asked, and an unsettling notion grew in his stomach.

Genji nodded as his cohort returned carrying a clear plastic bag, inside was a pastel green and chalky substance. A white sticker with the Kanji for Orochimaru written on it in felt tip was stuck to it, and that sensation in Kakuzu's stomach grew a shitload bigger. Unless the Sannin had been killed recently, and was now being reproduced as powder in a plastic bag that wasn't Orochimaru.

"It's powdered snakeskin," the man dropped it with a plastic-y  _plop_  onto the table before the miser, whose eye twitched violently… he was in a drugs den. Hidan was  _so_  fucking dead.

Suddenly, a muffled yell from the room above alerted the three of them, "Boss! Quick, ANB–" the voice was cut off with a sickening gargle, ending in ominous silence.

Kakuzu grabbed his money and promptly stood. Now was a good time to leave.


	8. Chapter 8

_Prove It_

**1**

The limp bulk of the last youth fell to the ground with a thud, his skull cracking as it met the floor. Hidan gazed down at the pile of bodies, his expression listless. That had been too easy, even Hezā put up a better fight than these chumps. He sighed, pulled on his cloak and picked up his scythe. Flipping it onto his back with the dexterity and fluidity of someone with extensive experience in its handling, Hidan side stepped the carnage he'd wrought and exited the alley.

He walked the deserted back street, pulling at his annoyingly small cloak, until he came upon the main drag. And once more, he felt his blood pressure rise a little at the amount of sweaty bodies pushing against him, hustling relentlessly in the late afternoon heat. True, the judgement he'd just dished out had eased some of the pent-up frustration, but Hidan needed something more. He needed to feel the pain of their death. But he didn't have time to stick around and perform a sacrifice; Kakuzu had said to be back after an hour, and even though that headdress wearing prick pissed him off, he didn't want to be in this village any longer than he had to.

 _'Besides, Jashin-sama would be royally pissed if I sent him_ those _assholes…'_  he decided with a dry twitch of his lips.

As he came to a large plaza with a fountain in the middle, he scowled around, searching for the road that would lead back to the meeting place. But as he scanned the area he spotted something through the crowd that caught his attention. Hezā was sitting, reclined in a chair and sipping at a drink, surrounded by men and women who looked dressed for an afternoon tea party. Easels stacked with painted canvases were erected around them, and Hidan realised this must be the art exhibition she mentioned. His scowl deepened as he began to make his way over. Who the Hell said she was allowed special treatment?

"So what do you look for in these, er, 'weirdoes'?" asked a man to Hezā's right.

Once she'd told that artist about  _'Zombism'_ , he'd promptly gathered up all his other 'artsy' friends and they now sat around her, chattering about different movements and concepts that they themselves knew nothing about. She listened as she sipped at the refilled glass, the alcohol causing that familiar sensation in her stomach to manifest. She had hoped these people were the real deal, but after being dragged round the entire exhibition, asking each creator about their pieces, she'd quickly realised that they were all fakes, just like the first. It made her cry inside.

But at the same time, it meant she could mess with these people some more.

"Well," Hezā began, but she stopped when she caught sight of a blurry Hidan moving through the crowd towards her. She was about to continue when she noticed the blood splattering his chest. "Eh, he's a good example," she pointed the albino out before downing her drink and rising to a stand, turning to face them all as the alcohol got to work. "Well, I'll admit, it's been a soul destroying experience talking to you gullible idiots, but I must return to my own pair of idiots," she said. And with that, she turned, melding into a crowd of people passing by, disappearing in a heartbeat and leaving the 'gullible idiots' in uproar.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Hidan asked as he reached her.

"What do you think  _you're_  doing, more like; coming round here splattered in blood, people might think you're part of the exhibition," she said, and quickly glanced around. Hidan gave her a short look.

The pair turned and began their walk back to the meeting place, but stopped when they felt a shitload of chakra come their way. They turned, sparing a short glance at each other as they did, before spotting a medley of blurs navigating the rooftops a few streets away.

Hezā squinted in the setting sun. "What is it?"

With his eyesight being a lot better than hers, the albino discerned the familiar shape of their team mate followed by four ANBU. Hidan's eyes widened a little, before a grin appeared on his face. "It's Kakuzu. And he's brought a little present."

Hezā glanced at the Jashinist, before looking back up at the blurs. And sure enough, as they moved closer, she recognised the strong, yet lithe form of Kakuzu flying though the waves of heat that wafted up through the air. Slowly, but surely, the people in the plaza noticed the chase going on above their heads, and stopped to point and gawk.

" _Don't start trouble,"_  the words of Kakuzu echoed in Hezā's mind as she watched the spectacle,  _"We're keeping a low profile."_

... Bugger.

Hidan and Hezā looked at each other, before turning on their heels and shooting off down the street toward the village exit.

With their arms flung out behind them, the pair dodged their way through the crowd, using the stalls as launching pads when there was no room to run. Hidan though, was having a much easier time navigating his way through the bodies than Hezā; after all, if you see a man with a huge scythe speeding towards you, you sure as Hell aren't going to just stand in his way. But it seemed to Hezā that these people were  _purposefully_  trying to get in her path.

"Tch, just  _move_!" she growled, shoving a bespectacled man out of her way before nimbly twisting her body and prancing through a tight gap between two podgy women.

Above and a few buildings behind them, Kakuzu followed, leaping with almost inhuman agility. He saw his partner and subordinate moving through the crowd below him and growled in annoyance before veering off to the left. It would be far easier to lose the ANBU if he was alone. Besides, that homicidal idiot would want a fight, he had no doubt, and despite the situation and mood he was in, Kakuzu knew he had to make as little a commotion as possible. People would forget this small disturbance far quicker than they would a blood bath.

So he leapt further off course, turning to the east, and left his companions still sprinting south.

* * *

**2**

Hidan and Hezā didn't stop running until they were almost two miles outside the village. And it was only then that either of them realised what was going on.

"Huh? Where did he go?" Hidan asked, skidding to a halt and turning to scour the trees behind them for any sign of Kakuzu.

Hezā was leaning her hand on her knee, too busy guzzling oxygen to even hear what he'd said. That 'little sprint' had taken it out of her, unlike Hidan who seemed perfectly fine after a two mile run in just under five minutes. She may be a ninja, but during the years she'd had to fend for herself, she hadn't really bothered training her endurance. Now she wished she had.

"Damn it! I thought he was leading them out of the village so we could slaughter the bastards! And this shitty dress is  _still_  too tight!" he exclaimed, as he suddenly swung his scythe from his back and sank it's blades into the trunk of a nearby tree. Hezā simply watched him, wary of the man but unsurprised at his reaction.

Though, as silence settled, the two shinobi realised they could do nothing but wait for their team mate to return. Hezā regained her breath and moved over to climb atop a large boulder, while Hidan ripped out his scythe and slumped against the tree he'd attacked, his arms folded and eyes shut in a scowl. The sun was still setting through the trees, casting bars of burnt umber on the ground and the birds sung out their last song of the day. Despite the nature of the man she shared it with, Hezā thought it was rather peaceful and pleasant.

She sighed, and relaxed in the calm atmosphere, planting her chin into her hand as she soaked it up. Turning her attention to the albino sat opposite her, she regarded him with a look of indifference which hid her appraisal of his chest. But, as she appreciated the muscles, she noticed the splotches of blood still staining his skin.

"You've got red on you," she said, and Hidan opened his eyes to stare at her.

"No shit."

"Whose?"

Hidan shrugged. "Just some street rubbish," he replied, and jiggled his shoulders into a more comfy position, closing his eyes again, leaning his head back against the bark.

"You didn't use your scythe?" Hezā questioned, noting the distinct lack of darker crimson coating the blades.

He breathed in deeply then made a throaty sound. "… It's been a while since I've had any hand to hand combat, thought I could use a recap."

"You any good?"

His eyes snapped open at the naïve question. "Better than a wussy like you," he smirked, but the insult didn't seem to have the desired effect.

"Well in that case, you won't mind teaching me," she replied.

Hidan scoffed, though a little surprised at the sudden notion. "I'm no Sensei, kid."

Suppressing a brief grin, Hezā cocked her head with a sympathetic look. "Aw, I'm sure you're not  _that_  bad."

"Kissing my ass won't get you anywhere."

Hezā sighed, "Look. We're going after  _Orochimaru_ , one of the three legendary Sannin, ex-member of Akatsuki and my former master… I need to get stronger if I'm going to survive this mission."

Hidan opened his eyes, and there was something cold in them, despite being bathed in the light of the dying sun. "Who said I cared if you survive or not?"

"Because if I die before you even get inside the base, then you're a bit screwed, aren't you?"

Hidan considered her for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he grimaced and sighed heavily, letting his head fall back onto the trunk behind him. " _Fine_."

Hezā grinned childishly. "Thank you!"

The liquid sun rippled for the final time on the lip of the horizon, its flare burning weakly through the bases of the trees, before disappearing and leaving the world in shadow. The chattering and singing of the evening birds softened into nothing, the earth silent in the short transition period between day and night, then, cautiously, the crickets took over.

It was then that they picked up on Kakuzu's chakra.

Hezā lifted her head and watched the darkness, her nape hairs rising like prey sensing a predator. Meanwhile Hidan glanced over his shoulder, oblivious to the erratic and uneven chakra flow – either that or he simply didn't care. And after a few baited seconds, from the murk emerged a thoroughly pissed off Kakuzu.

"Crap." Hezā did  _not_  like the look in the man's eyes, and she quickly hopped off the rock, putting a few good meters between herself and her superiors.

Hidan remained oblivious to the man's testy aura and rose to a stand, grasping his scythe. He pointed at Kakuzu, a scowl on his face. "Where did  _you_  go?"

Kakuzu glared at the albino, feeling his blood pressure rise by the second. "Exactly  _who_  told you we could find information about Orochimaru in that  _dump_?"

"I don't know, some old guy. He looked a little out of it," Hidan said, before leaning forward and sniffing, "Fuck! Have you been smoking crack? 'Cause if you have you're going straight to Hell–" Hidan had waved a hand as though to ward away the offensive scent, when Kakuzu snapped an arm up and caught his wrist in a vice grip. Hidan stopped and stared at him evenly, daring him to try something.

" _That's_ because," Kakuzu hissed, and wound Hidan's arm to the right. The albino didn't even wince as he glowered back at the miser through the darkness. Twisting his arm with every word, Kakuzu snarled: "Some  _Old Guy_. Sent  _me_. To a God damn  _drug den!_ "

… Well that made sense.

Audible, sickening pops and wet cracks filled the small plot of forest and Hezā flinched at the sounds. Kakuzu yanked the arm, twisting it completely around and ripping the limb entirely from Hidan's shoulder in a violent spray of splintered bone and blood.

But Hezā barely saw what happened as her body sagged and she was transported back, back to that night. The sensation of lying in a pool of warm sticky crimson shivered through her body as it began to remember. The blurry image of a younger her clutching at a fleshy, concave depression where her arm should've been. Mouth stretched open in a silent scream. She blinked and the images were gone, but the skin beneath her metal plate continued to ache, a swirling of nausea still festered in her stomach and a cold lump of ice was lodged in her chest. She'll never forget the feel of her own hot wet flesh on her palm. She shook and wrapped her arm up to hold her left shoulder.

Hidan gave a short, grunting yell as he pulled away from his partner, putting some decent space between them. Immediately he began spewing all the profanities and threats he knew, making some rather colourful ones up, and cursing Kakuzu's mum for ever bringing him into the world.

Kakuzu, on the other hand, just stood there, glaring holes through Hidan's well-groomed cranium. " _Shut_   _up_ ," he seethed, and gestured with the arm, "Or we'll find out just how far I can shove this up your ass before you bleed to death."

But instead of receiving a fearful – or heck, even worried – expression from the religious man, Kakuzu only got a sneer in return.

Hidan laughed and boiled Kakuzu's blood even more. "You can't kill me! Weren't you listening before? I'm  _immortal_ , you bastard! Didn't that leader of yours tell you?" Hidan was laughing manically now; his eyes wide and flooded with bloodlust as he swung his scythe round to point at his partner.

The Falls Nin didn't seemed fazed. Instead he just stood there with an almost blank expression – well, as blank as his expression would ever get, anyway. He was sceptical of Hidan's words of course, just as he had been when the man had claimed the very same that morning. But then, it wasn't  _that_  tall a tale; he himself was pretty damn close to immortality. But Kakuzu didn't believe there was any such thing as  _true_  immortality in this world, which prompted the most overwhelming urge to find out just  _how_ immortal this lunatic was…

"Hezā," Kakuzu's sudden mention of her name made the girl jump. She sincerely hoped he didn't want her to come any closer to either of them; she didn't want to get caught up in anything like this when Kakuzu was involved. "Set up camp in that clearing," the man pointed to a gap in trees not too far away, "I'll be along in a few minutes." That said, he tossed Hidan's arm to the side and cracked his knuckles.

* * *

**3**

Twenty minutes later saw Hezā and Kakuzu sitting at right angles to each other, so the two of them had a good view of the area in which Hidan's entrails were strewn.

The small fire they shared gave them enough light to see the trunks of the trees surrounding the small clearing, but no further. Kakuzu was sat atop a small rock, his forearms resting on his thighs, his body tilting forward, allowing the small flames to illuminate his masked face. Hidan had unsurprisingly put up a fight judging by the few tears in the man's cloak and cuts along his arms, but other than this he seemed unharmed.

Hezā on the other hand, was sat on the floor, cross-legged and cheek in palm, fighting to keep her lids open and trained on the trees ahead. She was tired, but the possibility of Hidan's words being true kept her from falling asleep. "You think he's seriously immortal?"

"If not, then he's seriously dead," Kakuzu replied as he tore his gaze away from the map in his hands to stoke the fire with a stick. Hezā huffed.

"I'll admit, I preferred him to Reiji," she said honestly, "He was more… interesting." Good looking was what she wanted to say, but she didn't think it appropriate. Besides, there was truth behind her statement; Hidan  _had_  been interesting, what with his bloodthirsty religion and unique fighting style. He was a change of pace from Kakuzu's stoicism.

"Annoying is the word you're looking for."

"Oi!" the two shinobi looked up to see something that used to resemble a human. It stumbled into the warm glow of the fire, "I-mb mot a-mboying!"

Hidan was indeed alive, but in a state where any normal person would beg for death on swift wings. His right arm, which had previously been brutally ripped off, was dangling by the fingertips from his mouth, while in his still functioning left hand he held his cloak like a sack, which bulged from an unknown weight. What Hezā didn't know, but could certainly guess, was that inside the makeshift bag, lay all the organs Kakuzu had gleefully plucked from Hidan's torso, like a fruit picker in an orchid. He was covered in dirt and blood and to top it off, instead of flat, plains of muscle, he had a great, gaping hole, giving them a fantastic view of his spine, torn muscles and the few remaining viscera he had still in place.

Hezā had noted all this within the space of a few seconds, and that was all it took for the smell to reach her. Jerking back, as though physically slapped, she refrained from swearing up a storm and instead covered her nose as best she could. Kakuzu, however, seemed unaffected. Lucky bastard.

Hidan stepped closer to the fire, before falling into a cross-legged position with a huff and spitting out his arm, dumping his organs beside him. "Told you I was immortal," he said with a victorious air, casting a smug look at the miser who glared back at him from across the fire.

Fantastic. He was stuck with this infuriating imbecile.

Sighing, Kakuzu returned his gaze to the map in his hands, letting his eyes rove across the different routes and villages surrounding their position. While Hidan had been busy collecting useless information from senile old men, he'd been picking out a new bounty to hunt. The information in the bounty book had said his next target was holed up in an abandoned storehouse around here somewhere. Kakuzu just needed to visit a few more villages, get the people to talk and sniff the bounty out that way. But there were many villages dotted around the area, with easily accessible trade routes connecting them all. He merely had to decide which one to visit first.

"And by the way, now I  _have_  to get a new cloak," Hidan said with a triumphant grin.

Kakuzu's eyes tightened. Amegakure it was then.

* * *

**4**

It was around midday and the three unwilling companions were on their way to a small village where they could spend the night. The next morning they would carry on to Ame to get Hidan's damn cloak.

Earlier that morning, Kakuzu had woken the two up at oh-my-God o'clock, saying they needed to get going if they were ever going to make it to the next village before the sun set. So adamant that they leave as soon as possible was he, that the miser had promptly stuffed Hidan's organs back into his gaping torso, not bothering to put them in their proper places, before stitching him up, sewing his arm back on and ordering him to move it. Needless to say none of them were in the best of moods. But Hezā seemed a lot less brooding than the other two. In fact, she was just bored.

"Wanna play a game?" she asked hopefully, though something in her said she was barking up the wrong damn tree. Hidan just shot her a disgruntled look and Kakuzu didn't even reply. "It's a really good game," she persuaded, trying to give Hidan a puppy dog look. He was having none of it.

"Do I look like I'm five?" he asked.

"You'll like it; you get to punch me," her brow rose when she noticed Hidan's eyes light up a little.

"… Really?" but he still didn't sound sold.

"Yeah. Mai and I used to play it when we travelled with Orochimaru and Sasori-san. When you see a caravan, you get to punch the other person. But you have to do it before they see it and punch you first. Get it?"

"Right. I get it."

"But you aren't allowed to use Chakra," Hidan frowned down at her, disappointed, "and you can't go for it and actually, properly punch the other person. It's just a light punch," she quickly added, and Hidan's frown turned sour. "But," Hezā glanced about, "Seeing as there aren't any Caravans around, we can just use… birds?"

"Birds."

"Yeah, birds. So when you see a bird you hit me. Okay?"

Hidan scowled at her, a fight going on in his head, then he sighed. He wanted to alleviate his boredom, and no matter how stupid this game sounded, it would do the trick. At least for a little while. So, keeping his rosy irises aloft, the man scoured the trees and sky above them, hoping to beat the girl to the first punch. And he did. Spotting a small sparrow, he swung his arm up and clipped Hezā on her shoulder.

"What? Where?" she asked, her eyesight failing her. Maybe she should have thought this through more… With a smirk, Hidan wordlessly pointed out the small bird as it flitted away, before smacking her on the arm as he saw another one. Hezā sighed, "Can you not bitch slap me? The name's got punch in it for a reason."

"Well I can't help it if KAKUZU CAN'T SEW AN ARM ON RIGHT!" he yelled.

"Would you prefer I stitch it to your rear instead?" Kakuzu replied smoothly, making Hezā grin.

Hidan couldn't move his arm properly because the miser had neglected to stitch it into its rightful place. Not out of lack of knowledge of the human body, but simply spite. Hidan's nerves didn't connect and function as they should, so his entire arm was rendered useless and he had to swing it using his body to catch Hezā with the backs of his knuckles.

Hidan growled at the man, before Hezā spotted a flying black smudge and whacked him across the arm, distracting him. A minute of erratic smacks passed in the silence and Kakuzu's eye twitched, feeling his blood pressure rise.

"Would you two  _shut up!_ " his words rang terrifyingly loud as he froze. But a flock of birds exploded from the treetops and Hidan and Hezā fell about whacking each other, totally ignoring him. The blonde's back hit the ground and she laughed as Hidan continued to block her attacks and strike ones of his own.

But surprisingly enough, Kakuzu didn't react further. Through the trees up head were the white walls of a building that looked an awful lot like a storehouse. He was rooted to the spot as cash signs rolled around in his head. Oh yes, at long last Kakuzu smelt money. And come Hell or high water, he was going to get it.


	9. Chapter 9

_The King of Hearts_

**1**

"Hey, Doku," the voice was female, rough and course, like sandpaper on granite, "we got anything left?"

A large lumbering figure shifted in the dim light, like an elephant in a closet. Two other bodies inhabited the room, one rather short and podgy, the other, relatively normal sized with a tatty blindfold tied over her eyes. It was she who had spoken. Her skin was a muddy tan and her red hair was stringy and greased.

She sneered up at where she knew Doku was standing, the sound of his lumbering movement giving him away. "Well?"

"'Fraid not Izzy-san," the deep reply rumbled from his barrel chest. He reached down to pick up a fleshy bone from the floor, the remains of its corresponding carcass lying close to it. He grinned, revealing yellowing teeth and foetid breath. But his pupil-less eyes remained hollow and pale blue. He awkwardly plucked a thin string of tissue between his fat index finger and thumb, and pulled it from the bone, letting the wet stripping sound fill the chamber. "Just sinew and bone."

* * *

**2**

"What exactly are we meant to find in this dump?" asked Hidan as he stared dubiously up at the abandoned building. The trio now stood in front of the huge sliding double doors of a storehouse, inside which Kakuzu was hopeful he would find his bounty.

"Supplies," the miser lied. Though, to be fair, they may as well look for some, otherwise this whole adjourn could be a waste of time.

The man stepped up to the locked metal opening and used his sleeve to wipe away the dirt caked on the small windows. Hezā wondered over to the window by the doors and did the same. She held her arm up by her forehead, using her shadow to see into the room beyond. But she couldn't discern much besides an empty room.

Kakuzu tore off the padlocked chain wrapped around the handles and opened the doors, allowing them to slide leisurely into the walls. He stood for a few seconds, testing, listening for any noise and probing the immediate area for any foreign chakra. There was none. Hidan came up beside him, and one after the other, all three entered the building.

The air was musty and dank, and an incessant dripping echoed from further in. Hezā's eyes quickly adjusted to the unlit environment and she spotted a switch on the wall beside her. Flicking it, a bulb above their heads buzzed weakly and cast a half-arsed glow on them. This place wasn't quite that abandoned then. They each shared a look.

Hidan scowled up at the bulb, before fixing said scowl on Kakuzu. "So what kind of supplies are we looking for?" he asked, partially wondering why they were even doing this when they could just restock when they got to Amegakure. But then he remembered how his partner was with money.

"Anything," Kakuzu replied.

"Helpful," Hidan said.

The room only had one exit; a stairway that plunged deeper into the warehouse. The three wordlessly descended the stone steps and found themselves at a three way split, one corridor to the left, one to the right and one leading straight ahead, all of which were just barely lit from dusty bulbs hanging overhead.

"So we're looking for anything," Hidan sighed as he stared down the passage in front of him. "… I really need a piss," he said, and slogged off, wondering down the middle route, leaving the other two alone as he disappeared.

Kakuzu frowned after him, then looked at Hezā. "Don't get lost," he ordered, before turning for the right hand passage, leaving her with the left and last walkway.

She sighed, rolling her eyes as she began her search for something helpful. She soon came across doors on either side of the hall and she opened the first one she came to, swinging it open fully and flicking a light switch to her left. The room was empty. She sighed and turned, closing the door with her. Well, wasn't this exhilarating?

Hidan on the other hand prowled the passages he came across, not really taking note of where he was going, he just wanted the bog. Besides, he was confident in his ability to find his way out. He sniffed the air, knowing he was more likely to pick up on the scent of the toilets before he actually found them.

The minutes ticked by as he trudged along, thanking Jashin he had a strong bladder. Around half an hour passed before the man flung open a door, behind which a pungent stench wafted. At long last, he'd found the bathroom. However, the reverberating slam of the door smacking the wall echoed through the building, and eight passages away, stood at a four way junction, Kakuzu heard it. The man frowned and turned to the tunnel the sound had come from, staring into the deserted, dark passageway as it stretched away from him.

At the furthest end of the building, Hezā heard it too and she froze, glancing behind her into the gloom she'd just come from. She turned back to the dark stair way she'd been about to descend, staying stuck to the spot, listening for anything else. Everything was still. The thick musty stench filled her nostrils to stopper them, and she opened her mouth to draw in a hushed, alleviating breath. She felt her heart beat rock her body gently in the still silence and the motion comforted her. But, at the same time, it filled her with a sudden sense of vulnerability – of mortality.

She blinked back to reality and cursed herself for being such a wuss. Not hearing anything more, she huffed and stepped down into the darkness.

* * *

**3**

"Izzy-san, I–"

"Shh!"

The three figures stilled at the sound of a loud, echoing slam.

"… Sounded far away," the shorter one noted, cocking his bald, misshapen head.

"Mm," the woman, Ishinagi – or Izzy – replied, pushing herself to a stand and stretching. "Guess we'll have to go looking for them."

Doku looked down at the picked, blood-stained bones behind his gigantic form. "Good timing."

Ishinagi nodded, smiling. "Let's go get us some dinner, boys."

But before any of them could move, the steady, sharp slapping of sandals on concrete echoed in under the door.

_Clap, clap, clap, clap…_

They came from further down the hall and grew gradually closer.

…  _Clap, clap, clap…_

Ishinagi pressed herself to the door, the shell of her ear scraping the wood. The short Osuku crept off the box he'd been sat on and took up a position beside her. He only came up to her waist even though he was fully grown, and when Doku sidled up to lean over the blind woman, the trio where in perfect height order as they concealed their chakra and listened.

…  _Clap, clap, clap._

It looked like dinner had come to them.

* * *

**4**

"Finally!" Hidan breathed, rolling his eyes back as he hurried into a cubical. Any later and he would've had to pee in the corridor.

… Wait. Why didn't he just do that anyway? He considered it for a moment, remembering that the building was pretty much abandoned… Shit. And he made himself wonder around for half an hour when he didn't even need to.

Annoyed, the Albino frowned down at the toilet. "Place stinks like Hell too," he muttered, wondering if he'd ever been in a bathroom that stunk this badly before. It was only now that he'd stopped and took the time to concentrate on what he was inhaling that he noticed it. But he wondered why the stench hadn't knocked him out as soon as he'd opened the door. It was truly vile.

As he pondered the scent of the room, he noticed something; a splotch of dark brown stained the dirty, piss yellow tiles beneath his feet and his eyes narrowed. Finishing up his business, he stepped back and out of the cubical, noting the spots were getting more numerous and bigger as he went, until he noted the pattern was disrupted by what appeared to be the smeared red markings of something being dragged. When he looked up and into the cubical again, his violet eyes traced the erratic patterns of crimson streaking across the walls. He looked back down at the trail, following it round and towards the back of the room. He stopped when he reached the end and stared at what he found.

Many stomachs wouldn't be able to handle the terrible stench coupled with the gore galore fest before him, but this was Hidan. A large pile of human carcasses, picked relatively clean, were piled on top of each other, until Hidan couldn't make out which body part belonged to which body.

A delicate clicking sound came from behind him and he reacted instantly, whirling in a flurry of cloak and scythe… only to find Kakuzu stood at the other end of the bathroom.

"Oh, it's just you," Hidan said, lowering his weapon and relaxing.

"Could you not feel my chakra?" the miser asked, a smug and admonishing look in his eyes. "Checking for foreign energy, and distinguishing between it and my own, should be on your mind  _all_  the time in a place like this."

Hidan scowled at him. "Well funnily enough, you're not on my mind all the time," he spat, "but right now  _this_  is." the Albino jerked his head and stepped back as Kakuzu made his way over, noting the foul smell.

The miser rounded the last cubicle and stopped. His constant frown deepened. Had they stumbled onto Zetsu's secret stash or something?

Green eyes scanned the pile of grisly bones until he came across a single brown eye staring back at him. The scant, picked muscle around it was still fresh.

Kakuzu's eyes narrowed. Someone was here, and with any luck, that someone was his bounty.

* * *

**5**

Once she'd reached the bottom of the stairway, Hezā had found herself in a wide, dead-end corridor. Each and every room she'd come across so far had been empty… and she guessed it would be no different for the one she now stood in front of. But whether she found anything in this one or not, she was going back to the entrance to wait for Hidan and Kakuzu. She wasn't going to continue wondering blindly around this dump.

She reached for the doorknob, fingertips brushing the metal. Then she felt an odd shift in air and stilled. She stared at the door, her heart beat picking up. The silence was suddenly very loud. Something was scaring her and she didn't know what.

' _That's pathetic,'_  she thought. She shook her head and forced her fingers to clench the brass knob.

"HEZĀ!"

She jumped, surprised to hear Hidan's voice reach her through the gloom. She stepped away from the door and looked back the way she'd come.

"Now what?" she muttered, her mind taken from her fear.

She'd taken one step forward, when the door behind her exploded.

A loud crash, coupled with the vibration of the door hitting the wall ignited Hezā's adrenaline. She didn't even look before she bolted, hurtling down the hall and racing for the stairs at the other end. Her heart thundered in her chest as she pushed her muscles to keep her balanced and running. She chanced a quick glance over her shoulder, only able to note three figures chasing her in the dim glow. The empty orbs of the tallest one frightened her as they reflected in what little light there was.

She leapt up the stairs, pumping chakra to the soles of her feet to push her further and faster. Shooting out of the stairwell, she banked sharply right, running up the wall and down from her momentum. Up ahead, a separate, more relaxed set of footfalls echoed, and Hezā's eyes widened as Hidan and Kakuzu came into view.

"Fuckin'  _run_!" she yelled, dodging between them and sprinting off down the corridor. She felt their chakra flare as they spun and followed her, racing for the exit.

"Why, in Jashin's name, are we  _running_?" Hidan yelled as the stairs emerged up ahead. "Akatsuki don't run!"

Hezā wasn't about to admit that two S-Class criminals were fleeing just because she'd just been scared shitless, but she was surprised when Kakuzu explained something rational.

"There's no room to manoeuvre in here; outside, we'll have the advantage," he said. He spurred ahead of Hidan and easily caught up to Hezā as she swerved up the steps and out into the glorious sunlight. It blinded them momentarily as the trio spread out and stopped, turning to address their pursuers who seemed reluctant to step into the sun. Hezā caught her breath and tried to settle into her fighting stance to Kakuzu's right, her penknife ready in her hand as Hidan stood confidently on the other side of him, hand reaching up and resting on the hilt of his scythe.

The middle figure was first to reveal itself, a woman with a black blindfold covering her eyes. Torn, dirty clothes hung on her slim form as she smirked at them, knowing where they were even without her sight. Next came the shortest one, his bald misshapen head inviting morbid curiosity from Hezā as the last and largest one emerged. His cold, milky blue eyes grazed over the three potential meals in front of him.

The woman sniffed and her smile grew wider. "One each… perfect," but then she paused and tilted her head. One of the shinobi before her had… one, two, three, four,  _five_  chakra signatures? Was that even possible? She scowled. It looked like they would have to work for their meal.

Hidan stepped forward, moving in front of Kakuzu; he finally had the opportunity for a fight and he wasn't about to let someone else have all the fun. "You two can just relax," he grinned, "These three are all mine."

Kakuzu didn't reply and kept his gaze on the female. This was the bounty he'd been searching for, there was no doubt about it; Ishinagi Kuwasowi. He was about to tell his overzealous partner to make sure she was left recognisable, when Hidan did the inconceivable.

He spun, swinging a left hook and smacked Kakuzu directly in the eye.

…

No one moved. Hezā stared.  _What_  had just happened?

Hidan didn't pull his fist as the Falls Nin slowly opened his one, still visible eye, the green, pupil-less iris flashing as the albino's face fell. And for the first time in  _years_ , Hidan felt a tiny prick of fear.

In the blink of an eye, his body moved faster than his mind as he was sent flying. He landed in a cloud of dust some distance away, Kakuzu glowering after him.

Wincing, he sat up, feeling a fierce pain bloom across his left eye. "Oi! Tha' wa'n't me… yo- ba-tard!" he yelled disjointedly, trying to get his mashed muscles to comply.

The miser's eyes narrowed, a red patch burning across his right eye from the punch. Wasn't him? But that could only mean… Ah yes. He looked back at the blindfolded woman before them.

"She's a puppeteer," he recalled.

Hezā chuckled, "You couldn't have warned him?"

"Must've slipped my mind."

Ishinagi smirked and released Hidan from her chakra strings. "Are we going to start this any time soon?"

Kakuzu bowed his head. A soft ripple of wind and he was gone, appearing in the air behind the puppeteer and aiming a kick to her head. Ishinagi spun and ducked, before reaching out for the man's left ankle. Kakuzu saw her move and, with his extensive experience, knew as soon as she did what her intent was. He twisted his body, spinning his legs out of reach of the woman and landed, fluidly throwing a kunai, its aim pinpointed for her heart. The weapon hit, but the clone burst and left Kakuzu flanked by the other two ninja.

Meanwhile, Hezā blinked and missed it.

But before long, Kakuzu fell back and he landed in a crouch between Hezā and Hidan. He hadn't even broken a sweat – he'd barely been trying. But to have held him off like they had, these guys were better than he'd expected. His lips twitched beneath his mask as he straightened and slowly unzipped his cloak. It had been a while since he'd had to use these.

The three opposing ninja regrouped, the female revealing herself again as the Akatsuki threw his cloak to the side. Hezā stared shamelessly at the ex-falls Nin's revealed back, her eyes roaming over the numerous scars and four masks sewn into his flesh. How on earth had he kept  _those_  a secret? But when Kakuzu began to convulse, she got a little worried.

' _What's happening to him?'_  she stepped back.

Kakuzu let out a growl and a second later his back exploded. Inky tendrils speared into the sky, curling around each other with a wet hissing sound. They quickly took shape, manifesting into four large, masked forms that landed and manoeuvred themselves around their master.

Hidan's jaw slackened. "Well fuck me."

Izzy scowled as she picked up on her opponent's chakra dividing even further. Now it appeared there were five  _separate_  entities, each with its own chakra supply, not counting the girl and the other man, of course. She tried to relax and form a battle plan in her head. This, it seemed, was going to get messy.

* * *

**6**

Perched on a branch in a nearby tree, Hezā squinted down through the thick cloud of smoke and dust. Slowly, she began to make out a limp figure lying face down in the dirt, and, as the particles settled, she identified it as the puppeteer, Ishinagi. The males were already dead; a pair of Kakuzu's mask-pet's having taken them on, while the man himself had combined the last two masks to create a phenomenal jutsu that Hezā had never seen before. A huge Katon and Futon combination that left no time or space to avoid; Ishinagi's life had been obliterated in seconds – as well as the warehouse and surrounding trees.

The blonde cocked her head as she balanced there. From what she'd just witnessed, and the information Sasori had told her little over a week ago, Hezā deduced that each of Kakuzu's masked… things had its own element, and from what she could feel, each had its own chakra source – which meant they had to have something living inside of them, some sort of organ or tissue.

' _Well isn't this intriguing,'_  she thought, cocking a brow. She found Kakuzu's figure stood between the fire and wind monsters. His back was facing her as he stared out across the destroyed battlefield. Blackened tree stumps smoked and scorched soil burned with dying embers. Relaxing her muscles, Hezā let herself fall from the branch and somersault into a crouch as she landed. She leisurely jogged over to her superior, but skidded to a halt when he suddenly whirled to face her. His expression was fierce. The monster closest to her turned with him and her hand came up in a placating gesture.

Hezā had a nervous, lopsided smile on her face as she took a step back, before relaxing when the Falls Nin calmed. His eyes drifted down to where his hand was clamped at his side, and the blonde followed his gaze. She frowned and gulped, noting the material of his backless shirt was dyed crimson. Blood leaked past his fingers, dribbling around his ring and staining the silver a rusty red.

' _That's… odd,'_  she'd never seen the man hurt before.

Slowly she moved closer, noticing Hidan emerge on the other side of him.

"Huh?" the Jashinist frowned as he took in the miser's stance. "Oh, don't tell me… she actually got you?" There was a pause… then Hidan laughed. Kakuzu's eyes tightened. Hezā just watched with a frown on her face as she stared at the wound.

True enough, a split second before Kakuzu's final attack, Ishinagi had used her chakra strings to throw a kunai from a concealed point. With his focus on the woman, Kakuzu only noticed it in time to lean to the side and avoid a vital stab wound.

"Kakuzu-san," Hezā began, her tone serious as she lifted her icy blue gaze to his eyes. "Do you need any help?"

"No," he replied, a bit more harshly than he'd intended. But the girl didn't seem affected by it; perhaps she expected it of him. He lifted his hands, performing a seal and the masked beasts shivered before complying, amassing together as a huge black agglomeration of threads and masks. A second hand sign saw them swirl and shoot towards Kakuzu, his skin opening up once again to accommodate them. His eyes squeezed shut as they entered his back, and the threads quickly laced up his flesh like a boot.

With curious eyes, Hezā stepped closer as the man knelt down and pulled off his shirt. A thin black thread slithered out of the stitched scar halfway up his forearm, and with his other hand he crudely wiped away the blood that poured forth. Morbid curiosity held the girl's gaze as Kakuzu stitched up his own wound, making self-surgery look easy. It seemed he'd had plenty of time to perfect this.

"So, are you going to tell us what the Hell that was?" Hidan asked.

Kakuzu sighed and finished his stitching, before wiping away the blood that was still left marking his skin. "I may as well; if we are going to work together, we should know each other's attack style," he paused and gave one last quick inspection of his work, before standing up and continuing. "My jutsu is called the Earth Grudge Fear. Each of these masks has its own Chakra nature."

Hezā's head rose. "Yeah, I noticed each of them had a different element," she said, the man nodded. "But, Chakra needs cells – so those things must have something living in them. And if you can use all five chakra natures, then they can't be yours; that would be impossible."

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. "Very sharp, you're absolutely correct. The Earth Grudge Fear allows me to steal another Shinobi's heart and absorb it into my own body. Each mask contains the heart of a Shinobi I've killed. When I first acquired the jutsu, I could store up to four hearts, plus my own; five hearts in total. My original was destroyed a long time ago and one of my captive hearts took its place. I can utilise any one of the others stored within me should that happen again," Kakuzu explained.

"Talk about living off borrowed time," Hezā said with a smile, then recalled that her missing arm also had a heart trapped inside it. It was strange to think they had something like that in common.

"So, how old are you really?" Hidan asked, narrowing his eyes.

"… Ninety," Kakuzu replied.

"Well Holy shit, you're just full of surprises today, aren't you?"

The miser ignored him and pulled on his shirt.

( _Do you mind?_

_I… was just wondering what you did with the heart… from earlier._

_It's for a jutsu of mine… and if you ever survive long enough, you might get to see it._ )

Hezā looked to Kakuzu. "Is that what you did with Reiji's heart?"

He glanced at her and grunted as he collected his cloak and put it on. Now it made sense. "We should get moving," he said.

But as Hezā glanced at the limp body of Ishinagi by Kakuzu's feet, curiosity caught her once again and she trotted over. She just had to see. Kakuzu watched with a frown as she approached him and crouched down beside the woman. She reached out and pinched the blindfold between her fingers, and she briefly wondered why she had to be so God damn enquiring all the time, but shrugged it off. She pulled up the fabric.

Her heart skipped at the sight of two gaping holes where the woman's eyes should've been, her frozen lids half covering the fleshy punctures. How had she ended up like this?

"In many rural villages it used to be the corporal punishment for treason," Kakuzu said from above, "It isn't used as much anymore. Shinobi villages consider it barbaric and abolished it some ten years ago," he leant down and grabbed Ishinagi's collar, hefting her onto his shoulder. "There's a bounty office on the way to Ame. We can drop it off there."

A few seconds passed, then Hidan realised what Kakuzu had said. "Don't tell me  _that's_  what we went in there for…" green eyes simply stared at him. "You inconsiderate bastard!"

* * *

**7**

Hezā's muscles burnt as she pushed and lowered herself to the frozen ground repeatedly. Her breath came out in great puffs and froze in the chill, before being carried off in the breeze.

Earlier that evening, after Kakuzu'd had a hissy fit from not reaching the next village, and after Hezā had reminded Hidan about their deal for him to train her, the albino had given a loose shrug and ordered her to do push-ups continuously. Over the time spent without her mechanical arm, Hezā had found many everyday things had become problematic; simply getting dressed was a challenge most mornings, but she'd gotten a lot better at it, and had discovered unique short-cut ways to do things, like close buttons or pull on shoes. Because of this, her right arm and hand had grown stronger, and the muscles became easier to control. She wondered if she would be ambidextrous by the time she got her left arm back. Still, all this considered, she found it hard to do press-ups with her only arm, and so she took breaks often, letting her knees hold her up while she caught her breath.

Sweat dripped from her brow as she sucked in her lower lip and chewed on the scab that grew there. She hadn't noticed it right away, but Hidan had managed to bust it when they'd played their little game that morning. She screwed her eyes shut and grunted. She figured it was good exercise, but this wasn't what she wanted; what she wanted was to be taught Taijutsu, seeing as she was pathetic at it. She could defend herself against your average drunk or thug, but she couldn't contend with a trained Shinobi of roughly Chūnin rank or higher. But Hidan was just sat shivering in front of the fire, his face almost double its original size and a ripe shade of plum… some Sensei.

Kakuzu watched his subordinate for a brief moment, before shifting his gaze back to his partner sat huddled across the flames. "I don't know where you get off trying to train someone in hand to hand combat, when you yourself are pretty poor at it," he was still in a bad mood from earlier.

Hidan jerked his head up and glowered at him, the light of the fire illuminating the bruises and swollen shapes of his face. "She asked me to! And how was I supposed to know that bounty of yours was a puppeteer? Besides, if you hadn't snuck up on me,  _that_  wouldn't have happened," he said, pointing to the bruising around his partner's right eye.

Kakuzu frowned. "And if you had been more aware of what was happening,  _that_  wouldn't have happened." He meant, of course, the huge purple swelling along Hidan's left brow, eye socket and upper cheek, testament to the miser's strength.

"I'm surprised he didn't break your head, Hidan." Hezā grinned, pausing in her push-ups.

"Shut up, Midget. I didn't tell you to stop," he said, before pulling his small cloak further around his broad body to protect it from the cold. Hezā rolled her eyes and did as she was told.

Five more minutes passed in silence. Kakuzu had pulled out his book to continue his reading, while Hidan remained closed eyed and hunched over, unmoving, with a sour look on his face.

Hezā pushed herself up for the final time before slumping to the ground, leaving her press-up count at thirty-one. It was more than she'd expected, so she was happy. For a further minute she lay there; panting and feeling her body cool. The rough barbs of twigs and dead leaves, of hard soil and sharp stones dug at her skin to leave temporary indent mementos. Once she was rested, she pushed herself to a stand.

Hidan opened his eyes when Hezā fell to a sitting position between the two. She yawned, then pulled out a scroll from the standard grey travel pouch tied at her hip. She unrolled it a little and placed her index and middle fingers on the paper, pumping a pulse of chakra into the surface. A puff of smoke burst from the scripture and cleared to reveal a thin, tatty book. She put the spool of parchment away and picked up the dog-eared magazine, flicking slowly through it.

Hidan scowled when he noticed what she was holding. "When did you get that?"

"When I was about… ten?"

"So why do you still have it?"

The girl shrugged. "It was the first thing I ever bought with my own money."

Kakuzu looked up from his book. "I thought you couldn't read," he said. Hezā froze, then slowly looked up at him.

"Who told you that?"

"You never read the menu when we eat out, you just order whatever one of us is having, or point to a picture," he explained. She looked down, a blush flaring in her cheeks. He got her.

"Um, well… yeah, I can't read," she muttered. She held the magazine up higher, attempting to hide her embarrassment. But holding a floppy paper book with one hand was proving difficult, and Kakuzu wasn't about to let her get away that easily.

"So what exactly are you not reading?"

Wanting to divert attention away from her shortcomings, Hezā flipped the flimsy book and flashed him a lopsided grin. "Hot stuff," she said, revealing the half-naked male centrefold.

Kakuzu wanted to face palm, he should've known. Instead, he closed his eyes and sighed, before returning to his own, more sophisticated novel.

The wind picked up and the fire flickered, dancing in the moonlight. North of their position the hoot of an owl floated on the breeze, its chilling note the only sound other than the wind and the crackling of flames.

"What are your star signs?" Hezā asked, scrutinising the astrological pictures on the page. She was just curious of course, she couldn't actually read what was written, but she did know a thing or two about some of them.

( _I'm a Taurus._

_How can you tell?_

_Because I was born in May. When were you born?_

_Um, sometime in August… the fourteenth, I think – at least, that's what the baker lady said before she kicked me out._

_Oh, well that means you're a Leo._

_What's a Leo?_

_It's the astrological Lion sign, silly. According to this book you're brave, faithful and creative._

_Really?_

_Yeah. I'm a Taurus, so I'm stubborn! But apparently I'm also patient and reliable._

_Cool._

_But it says Leo and Taurus aren't a good match._

_Huh? Why?_

_We're not compatible…_

_Pfft, that won't stop us though, right?_

_Right!_ )

Mai's voice rang off into an echo in Hezā's mind and a well of gloom sucked at the bottom of her heart, trying to pull it down into her stomach. She breathed in deeply, trying to cast the feeling aside and refocused on her superiors. But her question had been left unanswered. Kakuzu was still reading and Hidan seemed to be blatantly ignoring her. She was about to ask again when she heard a tell-tale intake of breath.

"… Second of April," Hidan said, his eyes still closed and the lower of half of his face hidden by the collar of his cloak.

"Fifteenth of the eighth," Kakuzu didn't look up from his book.

"Hey, that's a day after mine, hi-five!" Hezā held up her hand. Kakuzu merely fixed her with a hard, grumpy stare and her grin faltered. She lowered her arm. "Or not," she muttered, returning to her magazine. "… You know, I was once told that Leo and Aries are a good match." She could tell neither one of them was interested in what she was saying, but she was fed up of the silence and wanted to keep her mind from replaying memories of her missing friend. "Though, that seems a little farfetched, seeing as you two never seem to get along."

"Che," Hidan pointed to his swollen eye, "Proof that shit isn't real."

The girl tried to resist a smile, but failed. "Not quite seeing eye to eye, then," she wiggled her brow. Kakuzu shot her a disappointed look at the bad pun, while Hidan missed it. She sighed, "Whatever. But I think it's good to have something in common with people, and I have something in common with the both of you now…" she paused, "I think."

"Oh really?" the albino scowled into the flames.

"Yeah, Kakuzu-san and I are both Leos and, uh…" she looked at the Jashinist who stared back in the eerie moonlight. "… Oh! We've both had our arms ripped off by Kakuzu," she was about to smile, before realising what she'd said.

' _Bugger…'_  she'd let her mouth get away from her again.

Hidan's frown disappeared and he looked to his partner, who had now put his book away and was leant back against the trunk behind him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, when did this happen?" he asked, grinning and switching his gaze from the girl to the human pincushion. Obviously he knew the blonde brat was missing an arm, but he didn't know how she'd lost it, and the little fact that Kakuzu was the one to tear it off was quite the surprise to him. So far, they'd told him squat about their past together, if they even had one. But now he might finally have some juicy info on these two.

Hezā glanced at the miser who seemed indifferent to Hidan's prying and the genre of the convocation in general. "… A long time ago," she answered, feeling a little uncomfortable for some reason. Neither she nor Kakuzu had ever talked about what had happened that night. The lack of her left arm served as the one and constant reminder – those who still remembered the event never breathing a word of it unless need be.

"So why didn't you just sew it back on like you did with mine?" Hidan asked, his frown returning, head tilted slightly, "Or am I missing something?"

Kakuzu, who had remained still and stoic the entire time, finally opened his eyes to acknowledge his partner. "You're not missing anything. The arm was crushed beyond human healing capabilities and medical Ninjutsu. There would've been no point," he said, leaning his head back against the trunk once again.

Hezā's gaze locked at the base of the fire as silence began to descend. She glanced up at the two of them, Hidan seeming thoughtful, his brow furrowed and his eyelids hanging tiredly as he stared at something down near his sandaled feet.

She turned away from the flames and lay on her side, fidgeting and twitching for a few seconds before she was comfortable on the cold forest floor. "Goodnight," she said, not expecting a reply. She didn't get one.

* * *

Katon =  _fire element used in Ninjutsu  
_ Futon =  _wind element used in Ninjutsu_

There are more chapters and this story is updated first [here](http://www.fanfiction.net/~hurlstien)


	10. Chapter 10

_A Winning Combination_

**1**

The air was cold and still. The soft snores of Hidan filled the small clearing, but the nearby chirping of birds broke it up a little.

Hezā had awoken around ten minutes ago and was now passing the time staring up at the supple sky. Dapple grey clouds reflected in ice blue eyes as they drifted by and she shuffled around in her new cloak to get more comfortable.

The trio had left Ame early yesterday morning and were now headed north towards Rock. Pein had recently heard of someone who could help them find Orochimaru, and they were located in a village in the western regions of the country.

The terrible bruising around Hidan's eye from when Kakuzu had punched him had completely healed, he'd gotten his damn cloak when they'd stopped off in Ame, and Hezā was fortunate enough to inherit his old, smaller one. It was still big on her, and there was a large dim stain from where Hidan's organs had saturated the material with his blood, but you couldn't really see it, and other than that it was fine. Currently the high collar was up to keep her warm, but she hated how it hindered her vision when she walked, and so she'd taken to turning it down to frame her shoulders. The material was warm and heavy, but not heavy enough to impede ones performance or speed in battle. The bad thing was… it stunk of Hidan. Blood, sweat and general dirt was practically soaked into the fabric. She found it overpowering, intrusive and foul, but just like his snoring she supposed she could get used to it.

* * *

**2**

The coppery tang of blood was still on his smiling lips when the tug of consciousness pulled him from his dream. Hidan's eyes slowly opened to find he was flat on his back with his head turned to the right. The smoking remains of the fire were just in front of him and he closed his eyes again. Then he felt something warm and wet tickle his left ear.

Still caught in the blurry grasp of sleep, Hidan frowned as he processed what this meant. Then he scowled, his lips curling into a snarl. "Hezā. Get. The fuck. Off me."

Well it wouldn't be Kakuzu, would it?

From the other side of the fire, Hezā frowned up at the sky. "What you on about? I'm not doing anything," she said and suppressed a yawn.

Hearing her voice come from in front of him, Hidan opened his eyes again to find the blonde girl lying just past the smoking remains of the fire with her one arm folded behind her noggin. At the silence she tilted her head up to catch his gaze, her expression relaxed, if slightly curious. But then it shifted into amusement and she grinned. Hidan flew from confused, to shocked, to angry in the space of a second. He whipped his head round and came nose to nose with a… something. A very furry something.

Neither one of them moved… then it licked his nose. A torrent of florescent curses and threats spewed from Hidan's lips as he smacked the creature away.

Hezā's hand covered her ear as she turned on her side from the force of her laughter. "Ah! My virgin ears!" she cried.

The Tanuki scuttled back, neatly avoiding Hidan's tired poorly aimed slap and scurried off into the undergrowth. The Jashinist's purple glare followed it as he continued to mutter swears and wipe saliva from his ear, cheek and nose. "Che! Damn dog…"

"It's a racoon dog actually. Otherwise known as a tanu–"

"I know what it is!" Once he was sure his face was completely dry again, Hidan sighed and glanced around, noting a sufficient lack of cynicism and grumps. "Where's Kakuzu?"

Hezā shrugged. "Dunno. He wasn't here when I woke up."

Hidan sighed and lowered his body back down to the ground again, closing his eyes. If the tight-arsed pensioner wasn't around to piss him off, he was going to get as much sleep as possible; ever since he'd set out on this mission he'd yet to get a full eight hours kip.

As the pair lay there, a soft breeze brushing the trees above, the dappled glow of the sunrise began to filter through the trunks, illuminating the clearing. A strip of light fell across Hidan's eyes and he turned over with a scowl, showing his back to the sun. The daylight grew stronger and the two gently began to slip into a relaxed state of sub consciousness. Hezā teetered on the edge of slumber, while Hidan seemed to be totally out of it. The man suddenly jerked his arm up, grunting in his sleep and bringing Hezā back to reality.

She opened her eyes and blinked, then noted a familiar chakra presence draw closer. She looked down to see Kakuzu's cloth covered head move across her vision. She closed her eyes again. "Good morning, Kakuzu-san," she got a grunt in reply.

Kakuzu quickly began tucking his few belongings back into his cloak. "Both of you get up. We're leaving."

Hidan didn't budge but Hezā frowned and pushed herself up to look at her superior. There was something in his voice that just wasn't right and it unnerved her. "What's wrong?"

"There's a four man cell of rogue Shinobi heading right for us and I'd prefer it if we didn't have any more hitches in our journey," he growled, standing once everything was packed and moving to stamp out the remains of the fire. Hezā got up immediately and pulled down the collar of her cloak before glancing about making sure nothing of hers was lying around.

"Hidan, get up," Kakuzu snarled, glaring at his partners limp body.

The albino gave a grunting snore, before rolling over onto his back. He was a pain in the ass even in sleep. Kakuzu scowled, disappearing and reappearing in the flash of a second beside Hidan's sleeping head and Hezā watched as the man planted his ash ridden sandal onto the side of the albino's head. Angry purple eyes snapped open at the feel of hot ashes and grit being pressed into his face. An angry yell and a harsh shove later, Kakuzu's foot was back on the ground again, while he scowled down at his sleepy counterpart.

"What was that for?" Hidan demanded, rubbing his cheek, leaving coal-like smudges and angry red marks.

"We need to leave. Now," Kakuzu said.

"What? Why?" the man rose to a stand, annoyed that they were already on the move. "I haven't had breakfast yet! And when the fuck are you going to sew this arm on right? It takes a lot longer to heal bone, you know, even for me; if you do it now you won't have to rip my arm off again!"

Kakuzu continued to glare at his partner, his once good mood dwindling quickly as he thought he'd happily wait to fix the man's arm if it meant getting to rip it off again. But something happened then that managed to shut Hidan up surprisingly well… Kakuzu, the Waterfall's merciless monstrosity, hardened Shinobi and murderer, sneezed.

Hezā stared, before biting her lip hard to stop any laughter from bursting out.

Hidan froze for a second, then he grimaced and took a step backwards. "Shit, if you've got a cold you can stay the Hell away from me."

Kakuzu sighed, tired with wasting time. "I'll sew your arm on now if you just. Get.  _Moving_ ," he growled, lifting a hand as the stitches holding Hidan's arm to his body shivered and twisted, slithering out of their holes. The small inky worm shot from the folds of Hidan's cloak and through the air, curling around Kakuzu's wrist. Then a wet, sucking sound came from Hidan's sleeve and his arm fell to the floor with a thump.

…

"Ho, well done! I'd clap if I fucking could!"

" _Shut up!_ "

* * *

**3**

Two days passed. The trio had crossed the border and were making their way north-west through the Earth Country. But unlike the first few days they'd spent together, so far their morning had been rather pleasant; Hidan was being incredibly mellow for him, so far he'd only whined about three things and not his usual twenty, Hezā was in a good mood simply because the sun was out, all three of them had gotten a full eight hours kip last night and Kakuzu had yet to blow a gasket. Everything was just peachy.

That is, until four foreign chakra signatures flared up from the east.

The trio stopped, sensing the immediate threat simultaneously. They couldn't run, whoever it was, was too close to evade now, and there was nowhere to hide, even if they did conceal their chakra flawlessly; the plateau they were currently crossing sported nothing but wide expanses of emerald grass far too short to hide in.

Kakuzu turned with his companions to see four distant figures running through the sea of green towards them.

"Who the Hell is that?" asked Hidan. He didn't get an answer.

A fight was inevitable. Kakuzu already knew this. Whether Hezā did or not, he didn't know, but he knew Hidan would insist on a battle. The man hadn't seen any blood now for at least four days, which was a personal record since they'd begun travelling together.

However, what the miser also noticed was that they should've picked up on the opposing team's chakra long before now; if they had they would've been able to escape. So this only pointed to one thing: they'd been tracked. The team of four must've followed them and waited until they were out in the open like this before going in for the attack, and they'd hidden their chakra up until now in order to keep from being sensed. Not only that, but the signatures were familiar to him. He cast his memory back to yesterday morning when he'd left Hezā and Hidan sleeping in favour of travelling to a local tea house. Being that it was so early in the morning, there was no one else but him there and so he had unwound with his book and ordered a hot cup of Matcha tea. It had been relaxing while it lasted, but after just an hour he left, knowing they needed to get moving if they were ever going to reach their destination.

Travelling back, he happened upon a campsite surrounded by chakra traps. Remaining concealed, Kakuzu had stuck around long enough to identify the team as rogue ninja, and high ranking ones at that. He'd returned to the camp to collect his things, put out the remains of the fire with his foot and then promptly stamp said foot on Hidan's sleeping baby face. He almost smiled as he remembered… that had felt good.

"Fuck yeah," Hidan swung his scythe from his back and rested it on his shoulder while Hezā squared her feet and drew her penknife from her weapons pouch.

Kakuzu frowned at the pathetic tool. "Here," she looked at him, "Use this." He lightly chucked a kunai up into the air for her to catch. She dropped the penknife and did so, miraculously without slicing her hand open, just as the opposing team arrived and came to stop a few meters ahead of them. There was silence for a few seconds, save for the slight breeze tickling the long grass.

"Well, well. Looks like we finally found you," said one of the middle two. He was tall and thin with short dark hair. Grey eyes swept over his prey, sharp like an eagle's.

"I told you it wouldn't take long, eh," it was a woman who spoke this time. A smirk played on her lips and she almost reminded Hezā of Hidan – almost. She had jade eyes which, just like the man who'd spoken before her, watched them as if they were a meal. "These fools are hopeless at covering their tracks."

"Ha, yeah, a fat Oni would've done a better job than these guys," said another, and a chorus of chuckles erupted.

Hidan visibly tensed and grit his teeth, while Kakuzu remained unperturbed.

"I'll bet the word 'inconspicuous' is alien to them, eh," the woman continued, folding her arms and a few more snickers bubbled up from the group. "In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they're as pathetic at fighting as they are at remaining undetected."

"Look, can we just get this over with?" Hezā asked, she was getting annoyed; they just had to come and ruin their one perfectly good day, didn't they?

The enemy team were quiet. The woman narrowed her acid green eyes and unfolded her arms. She reached for the hilt of her katana on her back. "Uh-oh, looks like someone's got some fire, eh," she mused, "Seems I'll have to put you in your place, little girl."

And suddenly she was a blur, darting through the grass toward her target. Hezā held up the kunai Kakuzu had given her. Her determined, icy gaze followed every shift her opponent made as she moved in close, and seconds before contact, she sprang up, flipping over her enemy. She spun over completely and just in time to deflect the three shuriken.

Landing, Hezā doubled back. Her opponent weaved a series of hand signs and blew past two slender fingers pressed to her mouth. An engulfing ball of flames bellowed from her lips and threatened to swallow the young subordinate, had she not flipped her body vertically to the right to avoid the attack.

Hidan leaned on his scythe and watched the two fight.

"Look alive, idiot," Kakuzu said, and the Jashinist frowned at him before looking to see two of the three remaining Nuke Nin rushing at them. The one still standing at the back was weaving a long series of hand signs while the two at the front each brandished a katana and split, one sprinting for Kakuzu, the other toward Hidan. The Jashinist grinned and swung his scythe up to grip it in both hands, planting his feet.

The first ninja to make contact was the one who had apparently chosen to take on Kakuzu. What on earth was going through his mind when he made that decision is unclear. And no one will ever know, seeing as his blood would stain the very ground he ran on before the day was done. He brought his katana round in a swing, expecting the tall Shinobi to produce some sort of weapon of his own to deflect the attack. But Kakuzu simply lifted his thick arm and caught the blade of the offending weapon, stopping it in its tracks. The rogue gasped at the sudden halt of his sword compared to the continuing momentum of his body. Until Kakuzu's elbow found his face and knocked him into next week.

He flew back a few feet, landing hard, but rolling backwards into a crouch. He squinted at the missing Nin, trying to figure out what in the world had just happened and how he'd stopped the blade. By rights, half his hand should be missing. He studied his opponent and noticed the skin of the left palm was stained a sooty black as it threw his katana off to the side like a harmless toy.

The Nuke Nin spat out blood and reached a hand up to carefully examine his jaw where he'd been hit. Surprisingly, it wasn't dislocated or broken, but he figured he'd be left with one mother of a bruise tomorrow. He smirked as he stood from his crouch and reclined into his Taijutsu stance.

Kakuzu's head bowed and lifted his own arms, palms facing downward and left foot first, before they both rushed in.

Hidan, on the other hand, was having the time of his life judging by the happy-ass hollers coming from his section of the battlefield. The Shinobi he was up against seemed frightened by his vivacious yells and whoops as he swung and hacked at his opponent, forcing him back again and again. And that's when Hidan saw it; the very opening he needed.

He grinned, bringing his weapon up from behind to split the poor fool in two. But as he did, he noticed something big and brown come vaulting at him from the right.

He turned his head. The word 'fuck' ran through his mind before he was slammed by a gigantic slab of bedrock and propelled a good few yards away, scythe and all.

Meanwhile, Kakuzu blocked a jab, then ducked under a right hook. He caught the next punch and, twisting his body, swung the man around, reminiscent of a hammer throw. He let the stitched seam at his forearm come loose and stretch out before him. When he felt he had enough length, Kakuzu tightened the black chords, and with one strong twist, brought the Shinobi crashing down onto his partner who, until a split second ago, had been under the impression his head was about to be cleaved in two by Hidan's scythe.

From the angle of the collision and the pure misfortune of the Shinobi in Kakuzu's grasp, his neck snapped on contact with his teammate's shoulder, hard enough to split the skin. Said teammate suffered a broken collar bone and struggled to a kneeling position, gripping his injury and staring at his fallen companion.

Kakuzu scanned the scene, finding Hidan to be nowhere in sight. But he didn't have long to search as a barrage of head-sized rocks came flying at him.

* * *

**4**

Exactly seven meters away, Hidan burst from the rubble of the boulder he'd been flattened by, and predictably found himself to be in one piece. He flexed his spine, letting out a loud groan that stretched it into a sigh as his body sagged forwards.

He cracked his neck. "Damn that felt good."

Rolling his head around for good measure, he glanced about to see where he was. Hezā wasn't too far away, off to his right as she sparred with the female Shinobi, and Kakuzu was ahead of him, swinging some poor fool round his head like a purse wielding granny.

The Jashinist scoffed when the limp body crashed down onto the opponent he'd previously been sparring with, and he picked up his scythe. "Heh, better get in there before Kakuzu-chan reaps all the fun."

He sprinted for the battlefield and arrived just as his partner finished dodging rocks that were propelled by the jutsu of the rogue who'd remained at the back of the group.  _'Must've been him behind that bedrock attack just now,'_  he thought, looking over at his partner.

Kakuzu caught sight of him, his green eyes sharpening as they met his. "Come here a second, I want to try something."

* * *

**5**

Twist. Swipe. Duck.

Hezā was barely dodging and blocking the blows and swings from her opponent's katana. She danced around the Shinobi, trying to find or create an opening so she might put her Kekkei Genkai to work, but this woman wasn't giving her an inch. And blow after blow, she was getting increasingly tired, sustaining small cuts and slices, her reactions becoming slow from exertion.

Lunge. Parry. Jab.

"You shouldn't have brought a knife to a sword fight, eh," the woman quipped and easily dodged the blonde's wild stab. Reciprocating in a flurry of movement, she swung her katana round to create a neat cut in the soft flesh just beneath the girl's jaw bone.

Jumping back, Hezā winced at the flash of pain. But the woman was on her again, allowing no time to recover. The katana moved quick, slicing her ribs and a fist pumped into Hezā's stomach, punching the breath from her lungs. Her top half sagged forward, only to be dealt a vicious knee to the nose. She reeled backwards, leaving a thin fountain of blood in her wake. She felt like her nose had just exploded. Stars danced before her watering eyes as her body twisted and stumbled, until she finally fell.

* * *

**6**

The two remaining Nuke Nin stared horror-struck as Kakuzu released a single mask from his back. Slick, wet hisses filled the air as black threads coiled into the sky. His cloak was thrown to the floor, arms tensed and fists clenched as his knees bent with the exertion. The Masked Wind monster flew through the air, taking shape, before landing with a thud beside its master as the stitches in Kakuzu's back sewed him together.

Hidan smirked, shifting his scythe from his shoulder to grip it comfortably in his left hand. The Shinobi with the broken collar bone was stood to the pair's left, while the one who they'd yet to get into a physical fight with was straight ahead of them. It was upon him they would unleash their new combined attack.

Hidan let out a happy holler. "You ready?"

Kakuzu bowed his head, "Mm."

Like an excited child running for the ice cream stall, Hidan bolted. His arms and scythe were flung out behind him as he pelted through the grass. The rogue with the broken collar bone spotted Hidan's opening and wasted no time in grabbing two shuriken and flinging them at the Albino. But Hidan merely grunted as they embedded in his hide, giving no other indication they'd hit their mark.

The Shinobi before him drew his katana. He kept light on his feet and limbered himself up as the crazed Akatsuki leapt into the air, closing the gap between them quickly. Hidan's thick middle blade crashed with the slender edge of the katana and the spar was underway. Kakuzu shifted his weight a little and the masked creature beside him flapped its web-like wings. It leapt into the air and propelled itself forwards with a single beat of its writhing limbs.

With his concentration fully focused on deflecting hacks and swipes from Hidan's scythe, the Rogue didn't stand a chance when a blinding light burst forth from behind his opponent. Hidan's mad grin became shadowed before the luminance swallowed him whole. In the split second it took for the blast to reach its intended target, the ninja's eyes were wide and questions flew through his mind. Questions like why had the man just shot through his partner? And how the hell was something that powerful suddenly threatening to engulf him? But, as he too was caught up in the violent explosion of wind, he needn't have bothered wondering. He died within seconds as the force of the jutsu collapsed his organs and chakra passages. His heart was crushed almost instantly.

Hidan landed heavily in the grass and a second later the limp body of the Nuke Nin hit the ground a couple of feet behind him.

With his cloak now threadbare and a smirk on his face, the Jashinist stood and swung his weapon up to rest on his shoulder as he turned to look for Kakuzu. But as he did, a biting pain sliced through his trachea and neck muscles. He felt the chord of bones connected to his skull break apart and after that a white hot agony melted his skin.

"Hidan!" Kakuzu's voice sounded far away, his tone held nothing but warning that came too late as the ninja with the broken collar moved too fast.

Hidan's severed head fell like a rock from his shoulders and into the grass at his feet.

* * *

**7**

Sweat stung her wounds. A hot pain tore at her right side. A numb ache came from the middle of her face and it took her second to realise it was her nose. It felt like someone had let off C4 up there.

Hezā opened her eyes to find she was flat on her front. Her head was turned to the left with blood running thickly from her nostrils. But before she even had the time to draw in a full breath, a foot was pressed to the side of her pulsating head.

"Argh!" Hezā winced, tensing her facial muscles as she breathed heavily.

"You really are pathetic, eh," the woman said, "And you're missing an arm. Kami, what's a  _weakling_  like  _you_  doing with the Akatsuki?" she tilted her head, "… Though, I'm not surprised you're this bad; I'll bet those pretty little eyes of yours are the only worthwhile bit about you." A cruel smile found its way to the Shinobi's face and her green eyes lit up. She stabbed her sword into the ground and leaned down to prize Kakuzu's kunai from the girl's tight grip. "So how about I take them?"

Hezā's heart leapt and ricocheted off the walls of her ribs as the image of Kakuzu's bounty flashed through her mind. Remembering how she'd lifted up Ishinagi's blindfold to reveal the fleshy sockets hidden there, two hollow cavities staring back, empty and macabre.

Hezā's right hand awkwardly grabbed and pushed at the woman's ankle in an attempt to shove the foot off her face, her legs tried to push her body up but the pressure only increased to a point of agony at her struggles. She didn't want to end up like Ishinagi; a blindfold covering the punctures that were once eyes. Having to rely on her hearing, smell or chakra to sense things – if she lived past today, that is. She already had an arm off, and even though her sight was shit she still wanted it.

Hezā's eyes locked on a tattoo of a crescent moon on the back of the woman's hand, before she shut them tight.

Around fifteen feet away Hidan's severed head watched the entire thing. "Oi Midget! Stop lying around on that lazy ass of yours. You gotta be shitting me you're down this quick!"

Hezā opened her eyes, her teeth clenched and she vaguely wondered why Hidan seemed to have so much faith in her as she awaited her torture, whimpering and scared to death. And it wasn't until the sharp tip was millimetres from her eyeball that something, not entirely good, happened.


	11. Chapter 11

_The Curse Mark_

**1**

"Get the fuck up!"

Hidan's distant yell reached her through the grass, and something changed. Her anger twisted sharply and her fear was violently engulfed with fury.

A surge of chakra seared out from her right deltoid muscle, burning through her body and she groaned in pain as the curse mark began to move. The energy bombarded her, overriding chakra channels and flooding every crevice of her being until she felt her conscious begin to ebb. She twitched and fear fluttered in her heart before dying quickly as she gave in to the darkness.

The Nuke Nin watched as black lines snaked their way across Hezā's skin. Looking back she knew she should've taken her chance to end it then and there. But she didn't. She just watched as the patterns faded and the girl's skin grew darker.

There was a lull in the breeze, like the calm before the storm, then an invisible blast of chakra knocked the rogue clean off her feet.

She hit the ground over ten feet away, rolled and flipped up, glaring at her katana hilt sticking out of the grass too far away for her to retrieve. She shifted her gaze to the opponent that rose to a stand and she recognised the transformation. The girl that stood before her now was tanned, with darker blonde hair and a piercing golden gaze set in inky black sclera. Two small, ridged horns protruded from her upper cheeks on either side of her face and curled back towards her hair line. Her lips had bloomed to a swollen bruised purple and two small bone-like antlers curved from each of her shoulders. Her nails and teeth were longer and sharper, and, perhaps the most strange, her chakra had increased tenfold.

Yes, she'd seen this before. It was the result of Orochimaru's Curse Mark. But how had this pathetic wimp even been considered for the seal? From what she'd heard, Orochimaru selected his candidates very carefully. The redhead scowled. This could get difficult.

* * *

**2**

Any normal Shinobi would've taken a moment to analyse their opponent. But at that moment it didn't matter to Hezā what her enemy was capable of, because she was totally and utterly out of control. Her will to suppress the cursed seal had drained away. And now she was at its mercy.

Her mutated body swayed, then sprinted for the woman. The grass sighed and bent to the gust she created as she appeared as a blur. And like a fly being hit by a speeding train, the Shinobi was propelled backwards as Hezā's fist mashed her face. A sticky crunching sound broke through the air.

"Fuck yeah! Now that's the kind of shit I'm talking about!" Hidan yelled. But in her maddened state Hezā didn't hear him.

The girl chased her victim like a dog would a stick, catching up. She caught the woman's forearm and, mimicking Kakuzu's earlier movements, dug her heels into the ground. She swung the body round her head once before slamming her down. The soil detonated as it fissured up from the impact. And if the limp rogue was still alive after that, she wasn't for long. A sandaled foot stomped on her throat and the trachea collapsed instantly. The woman's crushed eyelids twitched briefly, then stilled.

Hezā stared at the body, but snapped her head up at the sound of more fighting. She looked into the far distance to see two figures in the middle of a very brief spar. One of them hit the ground before she vaulted for the one still standing.

* * *

**3**

Kakuzu had traded a grand total of four blows with the last rogue before he fell, dead like the rest of his team.

The wind mask flapped overhead and the miser steadied himself as the stitching in his back unwound. His skin sagged then flexed to accommodate the returning creature and it flew headlong into him. He pitched forwards a step, but kept his balance as the tendrils curled and slithered, compacting themselves to fit before the stitches got to work, sewing him back up again. Breathing in deeply, Kakuzu let out a heavy sigh and glanced up at where Hidan's head and body had fallen into the grass. He picked up his cloak and ambled over as he pulled it on, wondering if having his head chopped off would've actually killed the bastard.

But what he didn't expect was another attack. And what was even more alarming was the person behind it.

He stopped and spun into the assault as a strange looking Hezā attempted to punch his face in.

' _Orochimaru.'_

He caught the fist, eyes narrowing when he felt his centre of gravity shift from the force. He rocked up onto the balls of his feet, pushing himself forwards while his body simultaneously slid backwards, leaving shallow gauges in the soil beneath him. The overwhelming amount of chakra pouring from her was astounding, and he realised she rivalled himself coupled with two of his hearts.

He focused on her face. Her eyes were feral and empty. She wasn't seeing this.

Wasting no time, Kakuzu curled his free hand into a fist and socked it into her gut. Blood that had leaked from her nose was spat from her mouth, before he brought his other elbow round to smack her in the jaw. He finished off the little combo with a shoulder throw, slamming her into the ground and mentally patting himself on the back for not doing any serious damage. They needed her alive and functional after all.

The girl lay still for a moment, before her tanned skin retracted like back wash on a beach. The edges of it were patterned, Kakuzu noted as he watched it recede to a point on her right shoulder, leaving her skin its normal shade. The hair colour faded to reveal her dirty blonde locks and the horns of bone sheathed themselves back into her skin. Her eyelids fluttered.

* * *

**4**

Opening her eyes, Hezā stared up at the cloudless blue sky. Her head pounded and the general feel of her body told her a bad arse kicking had recently gone down.

' _I hurt. So. Much,'_  she winced, before suddenly realising she was severely winded and coughed as she guzzled air. She tasted blood in her mouth. Her brain was fuzzy as she tried to get her thoughts in order and figure out what on earth had happened. But then Kakuzu's angry face appeared above her, blocking out the sun and cold fear gripped her heart.

Holy shit.

A brief memory of what transpired before she blacked out flitted through her mind and she realised, with a God awful feeling that her curse mark must have taken over. Then she felt her collar being grabbed. Before she knew it, her feet had left the ground and Kakuzu had her on eye level with him so she could see just how pissed off he was by the homicidal gleam in his eyes.

' _Those eyes are going to be the death of me,'_  she thought and gripped his thick wrist with her hand, tiny in comparison. Her heart wouldn't stop thwacking itself against her ribs but she remained silent in his grasp.

"You had better have a good explanation for that," he growled, "Or Hidan's head is getting sewn to your ass."

A few feet away, Hidan laughed humourlessly. "No it fucking ain't!"

Hezā could feel blood coating her lips and chin as a cool wind breezed past. She gulped and tried to think of how best to explain why she'd lost control. She had no idea what had happened while she'd been out, but it must have been bad judging by Kakuzu's 'rage face'.

Taking her silence as insubordination Kakuzu's hold on the girl's collar tightened, making his knuckles turn white. And just to put the fear of God in her, he gripped her right wrist with his free hand painfully. "I ripped your arm off once, I can do it again."

That seemed to be enough incentive.

"I'm sorry," she quickly whispered. A dribble of crimson leaked from her freshly bruising nose and trickled down the dip of her philtrum, almost invisible against all the blood that had come before it. "… My curse mark – I can't control it."

"Evidently," he said, eyes narrowing. But his grasp around her wrist loosened and his left arm dropped back to his side. Meanwhile, hers stayed hooked, almost pleadingly, around the wrist of the hand that held her.

"I can't use it at will… with me it's always been that whenever I get really angry or scared, I lose it and the curse takes over," she explained, "After that I have no control."

Kakuzu grunted. "Don't let it happen again."

She was dropped to the ground as the man strode over to the detached head of Hidan. She lay there for a minute in the grass. Hidan's rowdy complaints drifted over in the breeze while she swallowed the rest of the blood that was in her mouth and passed her finger beneath her nose to wipe off some of the fresh crimson that collected there.

"Ouch! Kakuzu, you dick, that hurt!"

"Don't be a baby."

Hezā blinked and slowly rolled over, pushing herself up to a kneeling position. She looked to see Kakuzu crouched beside Hidan a few paces away, the latter gritting his teeth and looking anything but happy. Then she saw why and crawled closer to feed her curiosity. A thin tendril with a fine tip had slithered out from Kakuzu's forearm and was busy weaving itself through the bloody seam in Hidan's neck. Her eyebrows rose as she watched, quite fascinated even though she'd seen it before.

"Who were those guys anyway? What did they want?" she asked.

"Who knows," Hidan muttered, gritting his teeth as the thread punctured his skin again.

"They were rogue Nin," Kakuzu said, "Roughly around Chūnin rank. As for what they wanted, I've no idea."

Hezā nodded, telling herself that she'd better be prepared in future; she was sure this wouldn't be the last time they'd be attacked unprovoked.

She blinked as she realised something. "You two are starting to look like brothers."

Hidan's face said it all. "Shut up, Midget!"

* * *

**5**

The mutterings of Hidan's murmured prayers were all that filled the small hotel room. He lay flat on his back with one arm behind his head and the other resting on his bare chest, his fingers gently clasped around his pendant which was pressed to his lips. His cloak was surprisingly still on, but opened all the way down to the last button as he lay there, relaxed and pensive.

Kakuzu was sat on his bed and reading his new book. He'd finished his last one the night before and had promptly purchased another once they'd arrived in the small village they were stopping in. He'd removed his cloak and his back was cushioned by a pillow against his bed's headboard, the sheets a faded red beneath him.

It was around eight in the evening, the empty, stained pots telling of cheap room service sat close to the door and the window was cracked open to allow a thin trickle of cool air to seep into the room.

They were just a day's travel away from their current destination; the informant Pein had tipped them off about. Apparently a man going by the name Rokou Haizawi worked for a company that secretly sold medical supplies and surgical instruments to Orochimaru for a lower price than on the market. Rokou was the man who oversaw the delivery of these goods and so knew where Orochimaru would be. After that, they would rely on Hezā to navigate through the base and find the Jinchūriki.

Kakuzu let out an inaudible sigh as he came to the end of the fourth chapter and tilted his head back, letting his eyes relax from reading for so long. He blinked a few times before lowering his head and catching sight of Hezā dozing off on the couch to his right. The thick blood that had coated her face earlier that day was smeared after she'd tried wiping it away earlier. She'd yet to have a shower; as soon as they'd entered the room she'd slumped on the couch and not moved. She was exhausted from her fight, no doubt.

A large indigo blossom had discoloured the bridge of her now wonky nose and Kakuzu could correctly guess it was broken. A shallow cut marred her upper left cheek and he knew there was another similarly sized one running just under and parallel to her jaw bone. There was another spanning the back of her hand too and a couple more, much shallower, flicking the skin of her arm. But what really caught his eye was the dark patch matting her cloak just above her ribs and he could already tell that would cause a mess when she tried to take it off.

He frowned and his jade eyes wondered to stare blankly in front of him. It was true he hadn't known what to expect upon meeting the girl again after all these years, but he had been surprised to find Hezā had turned out to be quite the intellectual – he'd only acknowledged this when she'd informed Hidan and himself about the artist who'd masturbated under the floorboards. He hadn't been interested in the slightest about the art, but hearing her explain what the artist had been trying to do, made him realise that there was more to her than those striking eyes. He was pleasantly surprised to find that, despite her unprivileged past, she'd turned out alright. It was just a shame she couldn't read or he might've been able to have an intelligent convocation about something he was actually interested in.

He let another inaudible sigh wither into the silence and returned to his book.

* * *

**6**

As she lay on her side, Hezā couldn't stop thinking about her battle earlier that day. Of the rogue Shinobi who, by rights, should've won that fight, but was now slowly decomposing into the blood stained soil beneath her broken body. It'd brought to light just how weak she was in comparison to the calibre she was travelling with.

She cracked open an eyelid to gauge Kakuzu sat upright on his bed, reading again, while Hidan was laid flat out on his, murmuring softly to his God. She recalled his deal with her to train her in Taijutsu, but so far all he'd made her do was muscle exercises and chakra control. She made a mental note to pester him about it tomorrow; he seemed a bit busy right now.

Heaving a sigh, Hezā stood up and gingerly stretched. "I need a pee," she said, and started towards the bathroom.

At that moment, Hidan's eyes snapped open. He ceased his praying and threw himself from the bed. Realising what he was doing, Hezā broke into a run, flying past Kakuzu (who merely frowned at his book) and collided with the albino on his way to the same destination.

"I call it! I call it!" Hezā protested as she tried to wriggle past him but he grabbed her arm and yanked her back. In turn she managed to hook her foot around his shin and make him falter, giving her just enough time to get in his way once again. Together, they wordlessly jostled and shoved their way to the bathroom door where they paused to scowl at one another, both still locked in their fight.

"Piss off, Pipsqueak; I was here first," Hidan growled.

"But I called i-"

"Don't care," in one deft movement, Hidan unleashed the power he'd obviously been holding back. He toppled her balance, landing her flat on her arse to the sound of the bathroom door being slammed in her face. But as she fell she twisted, and the half congealed slice across her ribs ripped open. Her cloak had clotted in her wound and as it caught under her body it tore the clogged blood with it.

Unable to stop herself, Hezā yelped and caught Kakuzu's attention.

"What happened?" he asked, eyes not straying from his book.

"I… I dunno, but…" Hezā trailed off, curling onto her left side, trying to grasp her wound and staunch the bleeding.

Kakuzu sighed and glanced up at her, noticing the red seeping past her fingers as the toilet flushed and Hidan stepped out of the bathroom.

The albino stared down at his subordinate, confused. "Now what?"

But before either of them knew it, Kakuzu was beside them and pulling Hezā up by her arm. He half dragged her over to the couch and practically threw her on it.

"Park it," he ordered as she fell onto the seat.

"Ow, parked…" she mumbled and tenderly shrugged off her cloak. It snagged at the wound, but she grit her teeth and yanked it off in one swift movement, barely restraining a cry as she did.

Kakuzu sat down next to her and observed the wound critically. "Take your top off."

"… Come again."

His hard gaze locked on hers and she visibly shrank back from him as he towered over her. "You heard me. I need full access to the wound if I'm going to stitch you back up. Now take it off." He tugged his sleeve up revealing the two circumnavigating circles on his forearm while, with her one arm, Hezā endured another bout of pain as she pulled her red tube top off to leave her fishnet tank.

"Do I need to take this one off too?"

He looked at her like she was stupid and she quickly removed it, leaving her top half in nothing but her black bra. Though, as he lifted a hand to crudely wipe and pick away the blood surrounding her injury – the girl wincing as he did – his jade eyes didn't once glance at her breasts like she'd expected. She found it odd but was grateful as she tensed and kept her mouth shut, not wanting to act like a baby in front of them. Hidan let his eyes linger there for a split-second, but even he didn't ogle.

Hezā glanced down at Kakuzu's muscular forearm, squinting at the two black bands circling his skin. "… Are those tattoos?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her again. Kakuzu directed his scowl back at her, and the stitching thread gave a hard tug, making her hiss through her teeth – it looked like he didn't want to talk about it.

But despite his foul attitude, the man sure didn't muck about when it came to spontaneous surgery; within two minutes he was done. Quickly running his fingers over the sewn up wound to remove the excess blood, the two of them looked at the finished product. At least, Hezā thought they were both looking at her stitching, but when she lifted her head she noticed Kakuzu was staring at her instead. Suddenly his hand came up and grabbed her bruising nose. He pinched hard and yanked it to right, then pulled straight down.

"FUCK!" Hezā felt like her nose had been broken all over again.

Hidan burst into peals of laughter as Kakuzu stood and headed for the bathroom to wash his hands.

"Ah-ow, shiiit," she moaned, holding her poor nose and squeezing her eyes shut to stop the stinging tears. She leaned back on the couch, tilting her head up as she vowed never to go within ten feet of Kakuzu if she ever broke anything again. Fresh blood trickled down from her sore nostrils and she quickly wiped at it, she'd had enough of blood for one day.

After rocking back and forth on the couch for a moment or two, caressing her tender nose, Hezā reached for her travel scroll to unseal her pyjamas.

Hidan smirked as he got a good view of her fresh stitching. "Well would you look at that, this family's getting fucking bigger."

Hezā gave him a weak glower in return.

Kakuzu re-emerged from the bathroom and she stood, passing him on the way to the shower. "Don't move around too much, they'll come out," he warned, and re-alighted on his own bed to continue his reading.


End file.
